CIHM
Microfiche
Series
(Monographs)
ICI\1H
Collection de
microfiches
(monographies)
Canadian Instituw for Historical Microraproductioni / imritut Canadian da microraproductiont Itittoriquas
1996
Technical and Bibliographic Notes / Notes technique et bibliographiques
The Institute has attempted to obtain the best original
copy available for filming. Features of this copy which
may be bibliographically unique, which may alter any of
the images in the reproduction, or which may
significantly change the usual method of filming are
checked below.
D
D
D
D
n
n
D
D
n
D
n
Coloured covers /
Couverture de couleur
Covers damaged /
Couverture endominagee
Covers restored and/or laminated /
Couverture restaur^ et/ou pellicuiee
Cover title missing / Le litre de couverture manque
Coloured maps / Cartes gtegraphiques en couleur
Coloured ink (i.e. other than blue or black) /
Encre de couleur (I.e. autre que bleue ou noire)
Coloured plates and/or mustratkxis /
Planches et/ou illustrations en couleur
Bound with other material /
Relie avec d'autres documents
Only editnn available /
Seule edition disponible
Tight binding may cause shadows or distortion
along interior margin / La reliure serrde peut
causer de I'ombre ou de la distorsion le long de
la marge Jnterieure.
Blank leaves added during rsstcratons may appear
within the text. Whenever possible, these tiave
been omitted from liming / II se peut que certaines
pages blanches ajoutees lors cTune restauration
apparaissent dans le texte, mais, kxsque cela etait
possible, ces pages n'om pas M fknees.
Adittonal comments /
Commentaires stppiemenlaires:
This ittm it filmad tt tiM raduciion rttio dMcfcad btlew/
C« dodHMfit m filirt w uu> di rMuction indiqu* ei^tnaiB.
L'Institut a miciofllm^ le meilleur examplaire qu'il lui a
6te possible de se procurer. Les details de cet exem-
plaire qui sent peut-4tre uniques du point de vue bibli-
ographique, qui peuvent modifier une image reproduite,
ou qui peuvent exiger une modifications dans la meth-
ode nonnale de (ilmage sont indiques ci-dessous.
D
D
D
Cokxjied pages / Pages de couleur
Pages damaged / Pages endommagees
Pages restored and/or laminated /
Pages restaurees et/ou pellicuiees
Pages discokwred, stained or foxed /
Pages dicotorees, tachetees ou piquees
I I Pages detached/ Pages detachees
rT\ Showlhrough/ Transparence
I I Quality of print varies /
' — ' QuaUte In^gale de I'impression
I I Includes supplementary material /
' — ' Comprend du materiel supplementaire
I I Pages wholly or partially obscured by errata
' — ' slips, tissues, etc., have been refilmed to
ensure the best possible image / Les pages
totalement ou partiellement obscurcies par un
feuilM d'enata, une pelure, etc., ont ete filmees
h nouveau de fa^on a obtenir la mellleure
image ponible.
I I Opposing pages with varying colouration or
' — ' discolouratlons are filmed twice to ensure the
best possible image / Les pages s'opposant
ayant des colorations variables ou des decol-
orations sont filmees deux fois afin d'obtenir la
meilleur image possible.
10X
14X
1«X
22X
26X
»»
_
7
n
12X
ttx
XX
J«x
28 X
22X
Th« copy fllmad har* hu baan raproduead thanki
to tha ganaroiity of:
Otitr LItinry,
McGill Univinlty,
Montrtal
Tha imagaa appaaring hara ara ttia baM quality
poailbia eonaidaring tha condition and lagiblllty
of tha original copy and In kaaping with tha
filming contract apaclflcationa.
Original coplaa in printad papar eovar* ara fllmad
baglnning with tha front covar and anding on
tha laat paga with a printad or tlluatratad Impraa-
tion. or tha back covar whan appropriata. All
othar original copiaa ara fllmad baglnning on tha
first paga with a printad or illuatratad impras-
slon. and anding on tha last paga with a printad
or illustratad impraaalon.
Tha last racordad frama on aach microflcha
shall contain tha symbol -•■ Imaanln^ "CON-
TINUEO"), or tha symbol V (moaning "END"),
whlehovor appllas.
Maps, plataa, charts, ate., may ba fllmad at
diffarant raduction ratios. Thosa too iarga to ba
antiraly ineiudad in ona anpoauro ara filmed
baglnning in tha uppar loft hand eomor. left to
right and top to bonom. as many framaa as
raqulrad. Tha following diagrams lllustrsta tha
L'axampiaira fiim4 fut raproduit grica k la
9tntro»\tt da:
Otier Library,
McOill Uninrtity,
Montrral
Laa imagas suivantos ont M raproduitas avsc la
plus grsnd soin, compta tanu da is condition at
da la nattat* da i'axamplaira film*, at »n
oonformM avac las conditions du contrat da
fllmaga.
Los Mampiairss originaux dont la couvartura an
poplar ast imprimOa sont flim«s an commanqant
par la pramlar plat at an tarminant soit par la
darniira paga qui comporta una amprainta
d'Imprassion ou d'illustratlon, solt par ia second
plat, salon lo eas. Tous las autros sxamplairos
originaux sont fllmto an commandant par la
promlira paga qui comporta una amprainta
d'Imprassion ou d'illustration at an tarminant par
la darnlira paga qui comporta una taila
amprainta.
Un das symbolas sulvants tpp«raitra lur la
darnMra imaga da chsqua microfiche, salon la
cos: la symbols — » signifio "A SUIVRE". ia
symbols ▼ slgnifis "FIN".
Las cartas, planchas. tabiaaux. etc.. peuvent itre
filmis i dee uux do rMuction dlff«rents.
Lorsque ie document est trop grand pour ttra
raproduit an un soul cllch*. il ost film* i partir
do i'anglo sup4riaur gaucha. do gaucho t droits,
et de haut on bas, en pronant la nombra
d'imagos ntesssalra. Las dlagrammos sulvants
illustront la mMhodo.
1
2
3
1
2
3
4
5
6
MIOOCOPV RBOUJTION TKT CHART
(ANSI ond rSO TEST CHART No. 2)
^ /IPPUED IIVHGE In.
1653 Eait Warn Sir**)
P(oeti«»l*r. FMm Yort U609 US*
,'716) »8Z - 0300 - Ph=ne
;716) :;8B - 5989 - Fo.
SIR ALEXANDER OGSTON, K.C.V.O., I.L.D.
REMINISCENCES OF
THREE CAMPAIGNS
BY
SIR ALEXANDER OGSTON
K.C.V.O., LLD., Etc.
IMiHiTui PRornnoB OF ii'Kyitllv m rH«
IHIVUMITV OF ABEHJISIN
HODDER AND STOUGHTON
LONDON NEW YORK TORONTO
PREFATORY NOTE
The present work was written at the request of some
of my friends who knew that 1 had kept journals of
the campaigns which 1 had attended as surgeon. It
aims at no more than at presenting a faithful recoid
of my own personal experiences and of my interest in
the medical and surgical treatment, and especially the
nursing, of sick and wounded soldiers.
' " Pardon my putting so many ' I's ' in my dis-
course," said the candidate, "but when a man is
talking of himself, 'tis the briefest and simplest way
of talking " ' (Thackeray).
A. O.
I;
If '■>
!
CH*
11
II.
T(
III.
Bt
IT.
8.
V.
SI
VI.
B
VII.
Tl
VIII.
1
IX.
a
X. Tl
XI. Tl
XII. Tl
XIII. C,
XIV. Tl
XV. Tl
XVI. M
XVII. B
XVIII, H
XIX. C,
XX. P
XXI, X
xxn. 8'
7XIII. 8'
JONTENTS
PART FIRST
F.OYPTIAN WAH
CHAr
I, MILITARY SIROERY
II. TO EOYPT
III. SUEZ
TV. S.g. ' OANOEU ' .
V. 8UAKIN
VI. BATTLE or IIASHEEN
VII. THE PLAINS AROUND SUAKIN
VIII. 1 \HAI ....
IX. HOSPITAL WORK AT SUAKIN
1
8
4
6
18
21
sa
40
^ .1
PART SECOND
SC "TH AFRICAN WAB
X, THE PORTSMOUTH ADDRESS
XI. THE BLACK WEEK
XII. TO THE CAPE .
XIII. CAPE TOWN
XIV. THE MILITAHV SITUATION .
XV. TO MODDER RIVER
XVI. MODOER RIVER CAMP
XVII. BELMONT ....
XVm, MODDER TO CAPE TOWN
XIX. CAPE TOWN TO PORT ELIZABETH
XX. PORT ELIZABETH
XXI. EAST LONDON .
XXn. STERKSTROM
7X111. STERKSTROM TO CBADOCK .
48
49
50
S8
55
56
61
68
68
69
ri
74
77
■'Hi.!'
»
vi REMINISCENCES OK THREE CAMPAIGNS
C>l.f
r*<iB
XXIV.
COLF.SBKKO
91
XXV.
MEDICAL ArrAIRH AlOl T TAPK TOWN .
85
XXVI.
THE ARMY MEOICAl HKRViCE
. 1(M
xxvii.
LORD METHUEN'iI COl.l MN .
. n«
XXVIII.
LORD HOBEHTS'S ■.'RATCOV
. IM
tmAt.
XXIX.
LUKU KOBERTIi'S ADVANCE .
. 138
LTU.
XXX,
MAOERSrONTEIK
. »e
LTIII.
XXXI.
KIMBERLEY REUCVED
, 138
UX.
LX.
LXI.
XXXII.
CONDITIONS AT MODDER
. 18S
XXXIII.
MORE ABOUT MODDER
. 143
XXXIV.
TREK TO KIMBERLEY
. 149
LXII.
XXXV.
AROUND KIMBERLEY .
. 154
I.XIII
XXXVI,
' COUNTER-SUNSETS ' .
. 158
LXIT.
XXX Vli.
KIMBERLEY TO BOSIIOI'
. lai
LXT.
XXXVIII,
BOSHOF
. 166
LXVI.
XXXIX,
CONDITIONS AT BOSHOF
. 186
LXVII.
XT,.
aOSHOf TO HOOPSTAD
. 103
LXVIU,
xu.
HOOPSTAU
. 207
LZIX,
XLII.
H007STAO TO BOTHAVILLE .
. 209
XUII.
BOTUAVILLE
. 215
imde:
XUV.
BOTHAVILLE TO BLOEMFONTEIN
. 318
XLV.
BLOEMFONTEIN .
. 331
XLVI.
BLOEMFONTEIN TO CAPE TOWN
. 336
XLVII.
RETURN TO ENOLAND
. 338
PART THIRD
SERBIA
XLVIII
FROM ENOLAND TO BELGRADE
. 381
XLIX
BELGRADE
. 386
L
BACK TO THE MEDITERRANEAN
. 289
u
SALONIKA TO MALTA .
. 341
Ul
MALTA . . , ,
. 244
LIII
MALTA Tu LONDON .
. 247
LIV
THROUGH UNPLEASANT ITALY
. 248
LV
THE LEVANT
. 256
IVI
SERBIAN HOSPITALS .
. 359
CONTENTS
PART FOriHTH
ITALY
CH«f.
ITU. me viun britiih ambitlanck usit ro* italy .
LTIII. OORITUA (AUSTRIAN otftt)
ux. THE itaNio atVEii barrici
LX. TUB ITAUAN BABE HOBriTALS
LXI. THE WINTER CAMPAIGN or l»lll.|7
LXII. OUR ITAUAN PATIENT8
LXin. THE CUHMEB OFfEMBIVE OF 1>I7
IXrr. ITAUAN DRESiING STATtONH
LXT. MORE ITALIAN DREISINO STATIONS
LZVI. THE CARSO
LXVII. A FIELD HOSPITAL IN THE CARNIC ALU
LXVIU. UFE IN OUR UNIT ....
LZIX. THE COLLAPSE OF THE HOSPITAL
361
M4
Miy
179
aw
a«3
3W
808
8OT
818
)17
833
INDEX
881
1
:
;
1
f
!
1';'
■ i
4 ■
^
M.I
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Sib Alexander Ogston, K.C.V.O., LL.D., (Portrait) Frontupiece
The Gobge ok Tamai
Map of the CoimrRY amacent to Scakin
COUNTER-SUNEISE AND ConNTER-SuNSKT
Map of South Africa
Bud's-eye View or the Italian Isonzo Front
38
ii
1S8
XSO
880
1 1
PART FIRST
EGYPTIAN WAR
;? ii!
MlUTAKT SUBOEBY
MnjTAEY SuKOEEY is a subject which has always had a fascina-
tion for me, but I believe that, more than anything else it
was the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71 which specia'uy
directed my attention to this branch of my profession and
brought me into close relation with some of the most stirrina
events of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
It is well known that although in the times of Napoleon i
something was done by his chief surgeon. Baron Larrey, iii
introducing into the French army services the employment
of ambulances volantes ' which were first used in 1792
at the battle of Konigstem, while his contemporary Baron
Percy simultaneously (in 1798) initiated the use of special
stretcher-bearers or ' brancardiers ' for the wounded in the
field, yet it may be justly said that military surgery, as a
special department of medicine, had its real origin in the
sixties and seventies of the last century. There are doubtless
many yet living among us who can remember the impression
made upon the world by the Swiss doctor Henri Dunant and
his coadjutor Moynier, also a Swiss, appealing to civilisation
for mercy to the wounded and protection to those employed
in alleviating their sufferings. That which he had witnessed
in the hospitals after the battle of Solferino, in 1859, first
induced Dunant to take the initiative in agitating for
ameliorating the condition of those overtaken by disease or
wounds in warfare. It was to bun that the world is in-
debted for the attention of the nations of Europe having
been directed towards practical measures of compassion for
these unfortunates, and nowhere did he receive more zealous
support than in Great Britain. The outcome of the agitation
was the signing of the famous Geneva Convention of 1864,
whereby all civilised nations agreed to regard the wounded as
A
a REMINISCENCES OF THREE CAMPAIGNS
neutrals, and to neutralise as well their medical attendants
and even such non-combatants as were engaged in the merciAii
work of ministering to them. The Red Cross was selected
as the badge whereby all engaged in such dutits were to be
distinguished. Dunant, it may be mentioned, died in poverty
at the age of 82, in the year 1910.
In OUT own country, sympathy with this humane institution
was enhanced by the recollection of our calamitous experi-
ences in the Crimean War of 18S4, by the reports of the benefits
resulting from the introduction of an ambulance service into
the armies of the Northern States of America in their War of
Secession of 1861 -6S, and by the participation of many of our
compatriots in the ambuUmce work of the Franco-Prussian
War of 1870-71, where they took a part in the systematised
surgical war services of the armies on both sides. It would
be out of place here to endeavour to enumerate all the results
to which this widespread wave of sympathy gave origin, but
prominent among them may be mentioned the formation of
the British National Society for Aid to the Sick and Wounded
in War (usually called the National Aid Society) which later
became the British Red Cross Society, the provision in our
armies of bearer companies, two of which were sent out under
comrades of my own to the Secocoeni Campaign in South
Africa, the origination in England of the St. John's, and in
Scotland of the St. Andrew's and the Aberdeen Ambulance
Associations — ^the last two soon fusing into one for patriotic
reasons — and almost everywhere to the enthusiastic study
and instruction in first aid among the civil population.
The north-eastern district of Scotland experienced to the
fiill the fascination of the great philanthropic movement.
Besides the already mentioned Aberdeen Ambulance Associa-
tion for the succour of the injured in civil life, there were
raised, for the wounded in war, under the encouragement of
Surgeons-Major Evatt and Peter Shepherd, and of Dr. James
Cantlie in London, the Volunteer Bearer Companies of the
Aberdeen University. The activities of both of these were
great. With the support of the late Mr. William Smith,
advocate, classes of first aid for the police, railway officials,
and others of the community were taught and largely attended
in our city and surrounding districts ; while Dr. Alexander
Macgregor and others developed the University Bearer
Companies into large and enthusiastic units of high efficiency,
which embraced the flower of our medical students.
In order to foster these agencies, at least while they were in
their earlier stages, it was incumbent on me, as a teacher of
surgery and professor in the University, to give instruction
EGYPTIAN WAR 3
in the field. Henw Xn iZ^l ^jntaess its operations
drawn bv di«*«, ,W„ i ?PPortunity arrived, 1 was
™»wn by degrees into the experiences which I am about to
U'.m
II
To Egypt
under General Sir GemH rr.i„>.v. * ^ -2 "' ^"* °"t
u *s eS^il?^'?^-- r Kr^ i:'^^"^^;
« was expected to consist of 12,000 men anH »« i». ■ i
forEgypt.andlost^otoe^X^ Cwg.„H ""' T
27th of February 1886 * leaving London on the
Su^n^];ft^r*lt^F:r'^^.tea•Sirw"^^^^^^^
to fall in when at bieakfas^^L sS^rf^s Hoter.nf^"^
me to the principal medical offl,£r ^f C^Kd S':^
from him a recommendation to the head of the fSl^i -^
Department, through whom I warable to nh^^.T??^^^'^*
! I f iji
* i I'i . :i li
f''';ll
1 1
ha. .'(
.■:;lli?
4 REMINISCENCES OF THREE CAMPAIGNS
tion as to how to deal with the medical staff and othen who
were to accompany the forces.
I may mention that Beattie was in medical command of the
military hospital in the Citadel of Cairo, which was perched
on the highest brow of the hills to the south of the city. The
hospital was in many respecto an ideal one. Being one of the
Khedive's palaces, its splendid cool marble halls had been con-
verted into wards, each as large and airy as a cathedral, and in
them were being treated our soldiers who had been invalided
from the Nile Campaign. I saw no wounded there, however,
the cases being all of typhoid fever, liver, abscess and abdominal
complaints, with some slighter ailments, n.A everything that
seemed to be possible in those days was being done for the
invalids ; one could not but admire and approve ; yet even
in this, the first actual war hospital I had visited, I felt,
though at the time it eluded me, that there was something
defective, and I presently realised that this was the want of
trained women nurses which left the splendid hospital a little
short of perfection. Its site was overpoweringly magnificent.
At such an elevation the wards enjoyed abundance of pure
ventilation associated with protection from the heat of the
sun, and from the balconies there were exquisite views over
the whole town of Cairo and of the glories of the morning sun
reddening the splendid pyramids of Gizeh.
Ill
Suez
EvEKYTHiNG having been satisfactorily arranged with the
authorities in Cairo, the next thing to be done was to hurry
on to Suez, in order to catch the hospital ship Gimge*. in
which a passage had been, promised me to Suakin. Sir
Gerald Graham, our commander, who had been expected to
proceed by that or another vessel, was detained in Cairo by
Utoess ; nothing, it was true, would happen until he reached
Suakin ; but it was anticipated that he would soon be on the
move, and it would not do to risk missing the beginning of the
campaign, which was evidently not far off, for the Indian
contingent had reached the harbour, and was reported as
being rapidly disembarked. So I crossed the desert by rail
to Suez without delay, across the battlefield of Te|-el-Kebip,
of which on this occasion I got a mere glimpse, as it war uring
the night that the journey had to be made.
In Suez I bad to await the arrival of the Gmtget for four or
five days, and these were utUised in exploring the town and
EGYPTIAN WAR ^
showed me oX Ws hnS" ^™, Pn"o>Pal medical officer
wooden build^^.'^^i^TlpVof fSWh ''"~^«'" °^
shady verandahs, a few tente for in W- **" '^"'^' "■*''
fortheArmvHosDitairnJrfc T.. u ""«=*'°"s cases. buiWings
andeverythCeCtSn^'^^^S^I.int^^t'''"'^^
looked after, ^d had the «H«w * J^ ""^ ""^^ "e"
four nuking sistewlrom Nrtl^^ of 'die ministration, of
expected shortly ^'^^'^- °^ ''•»<>" fo"r more were
defi^^rSw^'mo:^]'* '"^^'^f "^^•'•''' --^ being
pick up an ScL and JThlt*'''."''"''''"'" "^^ool tS
education which wa^ giten bv tl ft *""* T **" «»* "^
called him. I found Vh^^uL *?"^''"' •"■ '•>«■>* «« they
on the g^>u„d^™s*:itt^L''K^^e?' ''^j:'^^'^ ^'^'°»
passages from it writ^ro„ wooded «.if" *''^'"' °'" '^^
painted white which rt» l.-iTv ? ^'"*** ^^^ P'cces of tin
«d n.bbeS^dov^^'ctfa U ,^J^ ~Pied with " ««» P«n
Robertson Smith writiff th/ ^?5 ' ^ "*" °»y *"«>nd
the children was c^S to re^^"**;, ^'"= ^"^t^ction of
and passages from mmorv as^n^^ repeatmg the texU
table ; no real imtJScUo™ ^' ^""'' *''*' multiplication
language of the Koran dMe^s^miiTr'^^u ^°/ ^^«=« *«
were accustomed to u« th^ ^ i" ^1P" *''^ -^-^c they
they were all^im.Hf J!, ' . ^ ""derstood little or nothinir •
pit4 ofThe vo rtuTtt\''^r.*l"« °"* *« '«'»« «tae
of authority, tKd'^ro'Vb^SJ^'^tf'^^i ^-y ''''' ^'^P-*-
and greeting the sheikh in mv fV,^ "" "^ entering
'aleikum,' the taips teokTuTtheirn^"" t"*r* "'*'* ' «''«»•"
heretic stranger asking fuL^r V "■ ^ '='"***'' "'""^ the
m the way T^te ^^" '^^ °^ questions, and interested
with my lift Cd on^heS sktes^ln t """f ' ^•'"»' ^Uah.'
than those they were used to n.' Jf "^"^^ «»« classic
the ' dominie • ^ve me a W ? « !?^ '•"'^ "^^^ ^ Suez
modern Arabic S ^nd^phrase^""^ °' ""'^ ■"''*™'=*-°» «
salle'mT^oirton^e^ tvTh^T""^*" »" «-"y " bed of
the sun duC^ tKv^ ,t t ''*' ^^ 7?''* ""•» hardened by
home of aSant moL'uifll^ unhealthy and makrial, the
my blood at^anTfX^^^Th""*^ themselves with
to their lean unfed brotb^i^wK """«? '•°"*<' '»nt'«st
I 'l
6 REMINISCENCES OF THREE CAMPAIGNS
breeses played from the north and tempered the heat to an
agreeable degree. Moreover, none of the sunsets I had wit-
nessed in other parts of the world seemed to me able to sustain
a comparison with the beautiful and singular displays over the
desert. When the sun had disappeared, and the land, which
at first gleamed orange-yellow and then became purple, had
faded into dull colours, the whole sky became ruby-red, like
a magnificent garnet, and one or two of the brightest stars
twinkled in this beautiful bed. This colour remained for a
long time, and nfter it had gradually disappeared the horizon
to the west received a border of scarlet-orange-yellow, that
girdled the town and surrounding plains like a rosy flame and
slowly faded into the night.
IV
S.S. 'Ganges'
The Ganget was at that time the latest achievement in the
construction of British hospital ships. So complete and
remarkable was she considered that before leaving the Thames
for the Red Sea she was visited by the Prince and Princess of
Wales, the Director-General of the army medical department,
and many others, whilst at Malta, and also at Suez, where she
presently arrived, she was crowded during the hours she stopped
there by sightseers who came to inspect and admire. The
Ganges was one of the newest, largest, and finest of the Penin-
sular and Oriental Compan/'s steamers which ran between
Britain and India, and she had just been gutted of all her
cabin arrangements for passengers so as to be rendered suitable
for the treatment of invalids and wounded men in the hot
climate of the Red Sea. She bore as her flag the red Geneva
cross on a white ground . For coolness she was entirely painted
white externally, and her boats and a large barge with which
she was equipped for conveying wounded on board, were
similarly painted. The boats were provided witl. canvas
awnings overhead and curtains at the sides to shade *hem from
the sun, and in them the patients were transported in cots
which were so slung as not to be shaken. When the ship's
side was reached, the cots were attached to special tackle and
gently lifted into openings in the side of the vessel. All
partitions between decks had been taken away, so that from
nearly end to end the ship was a long series of airy wards,
fitted with iron standards sustaining, either swinging or motion-
less as desired, whi:.e clean iron beds with sides which could
be folded down, and with invalid apertures in the centre, for
bathing, cleanliness and other attentions. The mattresses
EGYPTIAN WAR
decks anri . ^.^ * *u ^'^ ''"'^' occupied two of the
m5Lf;i-.raVdVerri^\t^tw^titT"''
hehnete and pugarees, red shoulder capes, wrev Z.11^ H«f..
and wlute aprons, with, of course. th^el'^Zura^^rprt'
There was even an interpreter who snoke AmhioT,, ^ •
htOe man, who pi^fessJto kn^w thrSou^f ^eU .^S'to'Ef
hills and in place of the wild Arab charces w^ K^ h J^
:f'r^ar,:.Ss" --^^^ ^" ^'^ ^^oS^^y tK^st
£l^X°^^o^S-/^tas^i::^ni^^^^^
picture under the morning^ Ouf^^L kvd^ ^
. .H
hi
'■•■'^I
8 REMINISCENCES OF THREE CAMPAIGNS
wmbling the peaks of the Trolltinder in Norway, lined the
shores where we approached them and were the only objects
that broke the level monotony except an occasional lighthouse
showing the position of some coial reef at a distance from the
land, or a passing vessel, both of which made small excitements
in the otherwise quiet days. The sun emerged dusty red
over Arabia is he rose from his morning bath, and set at night
over Egypt in a wonderful worM of gorgeous light, dropping
into a fiery haze which, after he had set, flashed up into crimson
and flame-coloured glows ; and as these slowly — very slowly
faded, they le't a band like a sword of clear white moonbenms
running across the heavens from the sunset point, the beautiAil
Zodiacal Light.
On the morning of our nearing Suakin we ran all forenoon
at slow speed in a narrow channel inside the reefs which lined
the coast, and thus passed for many miles quite cfose to the
land. Inland as far as the eye could reach, and extending
far to north and south, lay a flat diy scrubby plain, barely
above the level of the sea, separated ♦'rom the open ocean by
a clear greenish, almost white, belt of glassy liquid bordered
towards the deep by a creamy line of breakers where the reef
ended, and presently, miles inland to the west, ragged high
mountains became visible. Continuing onwards, on the out-
look for the town of Suakin, we perceived in the distant south
the masts of a group of ships, and found as we approached
them that they were those of the vessels in its harbour visible
above the low-lying town and land. When opposite them, a
sixty-foot gap marked oft by buoys showed itself in the reef,
and proved to be the outer entrance to a ' Y ' shaped haven.
After interminable signalling by flags, and cruising about of
small boats and vessels, a little steam launch finally came off,
left a naval officer on board to pilot us, and we sailed cautiously
in. We crept for miles into a narrow gut, and the first object
we beheld on land was a little cemetery with its white and black
crosses where the English were buried, a spectacle that stilled
the words of many of the gallant fellows on board.
We had scarcely reachod our mooring place on the north
bank of the channel, when we were brought to a realisation
of the presence of war by the approach of a steam launch
bringing out a guardsman transfixed through ar.n and chest
by an Arab spear, and his companions reported to us that
every night the Arabs were penetrating our lines and spearing
our men in their tents, while sleep was also rendered difficult
by the nocturnal rattle of the rifies and the booming of the
cannon directec against the straggling raiders who swarmed
round the camp.
EGYPTIAN WAR
SUAXIN
1^ port of Suakin aeemej as u' it had been shaped bv natim.
for the conceaiment of a nest of pirates. iCSthe .^^
Zl^ "t^** "j;""" "»« almost ^visibte."an5C not
more tEan 800 yards across, while it gave access to a h^rn
trated for wme two miles into the land, biiureated • rSh nn .
S'ttl ""^J:^' "^ '»"• «"'• " q^arter^f^milet dl"
cussing the ^ir^^^T^z^'jii^'^r^,, rs
of ouTll^ta'i'^/ndThr i^nr"*^ "'"""'• *••' P"'* »' *•" ti"'
the a!+^^ * impressicns conveyed to a novice in
^'tJf fu \"' ^5- "ot be uninteresting. In the B^C
mostly to emanate from an English gunboat steWoned^^^
entrance mouth of the channel Farther in iTv the ^„
moored to the northern bank of the innJr l«^kl Gongw,
opposite the cemetery and not ?ar ^^^ the t:v^"•^Z??
have called the inner harbour was the shallow f^ked^oJ
fcatr:Xe'Z^- Z^^;^^^^^^
uCTie aistance from the shore, or with native dug-outs or built
canoes rowed bv merrv lii-H» ii..k u ■ . o^"'-* or duuc
bX?r^f K^ *'"= "^"'^ ?°"« by^ear'no^g
oamooorods The quays were crowded with Arabs usuallv
S«s w"h'°.U'r"'°*V"'' » «»*to° plaid. tXm^
^dlLr,^.i ^* .""•* ''"™ brown skins, carryine
S E^^H^ °™;f -^ ^"^^s duties. Here and thire h^*
S^ *=»T*'»" «>Wiers m red fez and white linen unifoms
wt^ "^"ErK^S^T'"" or marched in squads. wWle ^ve™!
wnere tne Jinglishman with brown linen suit anH wh;*«
hehnet was active in the heat, dirocting andJ.ve^S,''""
Suakin was a picturesque Egyptian city^w^^shbing
'11
10 REMINISCENCES OF THREE CAMPAIGNS
housei were conitrueted of pure white coral bloclu, re*embling
white marble, of Moorish architecture, with finely carved
woodwovk on doors and windows ; superficially the prettiest
place I had yet seen in Africa. But its streets were crooked,
narrow, dirty, hot, and fetid, and crowded with strings of
camels plying between the town and the camps outskle, often
ridden by an English soldier or jack tar, or occasionally by s
turbaned and belted Arab chieftain bristling with scimetar,
daggers, and pistols. The natives were fbte-looking people,
whom one respected at first sight ; they were ' firiendliei. of
course, and showed us their spears and shields with a proud
defiant air as they chaffed the Britons. The townspeople
appeared happy and contented ; men, women, and the beautiful
chocolate-coloured babies who ran about with nothing on.
In the sea between Suakin and its suburb £1-Khaf were
merry companies of men and women bathing, laughing, and
enjoying thr sunshine.
El-Khaf, the suburb on the mainland, was that half-moon-
shaped portion of land which was marked oft from ihe si irround-
ing desert by a high enclosing wall. It was perhaps Miae six
times the size of Suakin itself, but was only partirjly built
upon ; the buildings resembled those in Suakin, though in a
meaner way, and there were large open spaces beyond the
houses. Neither the city nor its suburb had any gardens or
trees beyond an occasional dry, dusty, ragged palm; the whole
did not contain a bush over twelve feet in leight ; yet the
white marble-like houses redeemed many defects and gave an
attractive air to both Suakin and El-Kh^.f.
The rampart which enclosed El-Khaf was high, bastioned
and crenellated, and was pierced by several gates leading out
to the plain beyund. Inside it swarmed with soldiers and
native population, all unarmed except the friendlies and the
war correspondents, among whom I met Bennett Burleigh
busy collecting news. But outside the rampart everything
was utter barrenness and aridness, there was not a green leaf
visible, even in what had been Osinan Digna's garden, which
was represented by a ruined enclosure and a single bush of
the cotton plant.
Looking from the ramparts of El-Khaf one saw a series of
redoubts resembling chalets, loopholed for musketry, about
a mile from the rampart, each of them standing solitary in
the desert ; while a mile or two farther out towards the west,
and about a mile apart from one another, were the two Water
Forts, something like wedding cakes, and hence most striking
and conspicuous constructions tis they appeared far out in
the desert.
EGYPTIAN WAR „
•J^ i^i."^^ Pj*'" °"^'^"' El-Khaf, .t the time of my
or.l Fn^fi P""** T- r*"**"*** ^ "" innumerable tenU
or tne English amy, which turrounded the suburb on all sidei
excepting on the south, where the camps were those of the
Indian auxil«nes. The whole formed groups or villages of
canvas rather too widely apart for safety, as It seemed to me j
nvf,in lH"*" '" """'.'l" cavalry in another; engineers
marine., bearer companies, and field hospitals formed yet
n^" ; most conspicuous was the tent of the field hospital
&t "" »'J:'" ' ^« "'*•" ''» "*■ ««"■ On« other giSup,
and It was the least protected, though not far from the 4ntre
JJL - . headquarters, where tb- (general and heads of
departments were concentrated for consuJUtion and co-
operation. One thmg particularly struck m«, as it did in
subsequent campaigns, namely that it is usually our British
way to locate the hospiwi contingent in the most exposed
and dangerous quarter of the camp.
hr^St^K " i"l! **r?' ''^^ "»* ' "I'tch with earthen
breastwork, the latter being on the inner side, and some two
feet only in height. Within it sentries pavioUed at night"
m^ft^*' Jf hundred yard, beyond it were the alrSdy
mentioned redoubts where outposts and sharpshootera
watcn«^ during the dark hours trrepel the pr3 nr«nd
marauding parties of the Arabs. *^ "ng ana
^^^^ 'he lines and among the groups of tents were
Z^ fl 'm vt i. •'°'""' ?'"''**"' '" '«»»• «»" cooking pota
over field kitchen-trenches, officers and soldiers standtog
about m every sort of undress, mostly in boots, shirts, and
trousers only, with unshaven faces and pipes in their mout™
mSLrfi^r^^i^r;''"*"'^ "^' '^« *°o ""*''• Mounted
orderlies of Sikh lancers rode about with messages, with their
long spears and small pennants flying from thi points ; and
busy men were wntmg in the tents sending or receiving orders
while wagons stood about, and a printing press wagon was at
"* D^.rin^P.r'"^ '"^f clusterof tents forming the he^quaAe^
Dunng the couple of days in which I continued to live in
h^.Tf ''"* the <?««« I had opportunities of explorii^g
the coast for several mUes around Suakin, and with all iti
barrenness found ,t most attractive. The enormous plain.
?he nn,^".? f"' cight or ten miles inland and for fifty or more t,^
coral. When walking along it, the foot crushed, not earth
and stones, but stalks, bunches, fragments, and d Jst of white
conJ of many sorts and the clear sea water that washed the
^.^n. T/"L°/ ^"^f T'^ °^ ^^^ «""«' *hile over its
shining white bottom played bright-coloured fishes resembling
I- ,1 ii
13 REMINISCENCES OF THREE CAMPAIGNS
iMge perch and mMkercl, gnen eels, or bbck-qwtted imiUler
fry. Along the shallow imugins sUlked inow-white cranes
upon their long black legs, or lines of pink-white flamingoee
stood, and tiny waders like sandpipers hopped about afeng
the edges, making everything cheery with their piping twitter
and plaintive cries. Curlews with their king curved beaks
•oared overhead, ak)ng -vith fine hawks and seagulls, kurger
then our home birds, more splendki, and altogether different.
The tide, as it rose and fell for a foot or two, left a border
where hermit crabs crept about, and a larger species of crab
with long legs ran so fast into the rathole which it dug close
to the water that one could not get en opportunity of securing
it for examination. Farther inland the plain was bare, with
sparse tufts of a short fleshy-l' ved shrub reminding one of
a heather-dotted moor on the S, Msh uplands, but the folia^
had the shape of berries or smuii sausages, and was dull m
colour, and occasionally purple. Numbers of little ants ran
busily about, and crowned hoopoes were busied in feeding on
the apparently sterile surface.
It was somewhat dangerous to extend one's explorations,
for the Arabs were said to be occupying some wells not far
bom the town, ind we were told that it was contemplated
to attack them there at once, and drive them if possible back
to the fortiued town of Sinkat, where the most serious work
of assaulting them in their stronghoW was anticipated. If
this were the case, my arrival at Suakin was in the very nick
of time.
On directing my steps back to the c« mps I met and received
a kind welcome from man> friends. Surgeon James P at
the Marine Battalion Camp, Surgeon-Major E , D . A ,
Secretary to the Principal Medical Officer. Surgeon-BIajorW
of the Firct Bearer Company, and the P.M.O. himself. Dr.
Bamett, who took me along to Y -adquarters, mtroduced n -
to most of the staff there, and promised to arrange about my
tent, ratu>ns, etc., and to see if a hor e could be procured,
though horses and saddlery were things uncommonly difficult
to be got hold of in Suakin. A telegram also reached me
from Mr. Harrington Kennett in Cairo, to say that he was
oominK through in a couple of days and wished me to join the
National Aid Society under him. Dr. Bamett attached me
to the First Bearer Company, so Mohammed and I transported
my belongings to the extreme north-west comer of the lines,
where Surgeon-Major Wilson, with his colleagues Drs. B
ftnd C and Quartermaster T- , gave me a friendly
reception and shared with me their mess and tent.
I can even now vividly recall the pure delight, such as life
EGYPTIAN WAR ,3
ftrthert corner of the low bre«itwork of the ounp whenaJI
dwert on wUch we looked, w>tching the purpling «unset ikT
wnammted by the hori*,ntally pbced SwEent of tS new
moon Acting bo-t-lik. .bout thirty degre^i^ve the h^n
U. convexity directed rtraight ioi^warf.. Sowfng m i!
brUl..nt green .gainst the coloured heaven,, with tie .tu'
Itthter green dwc of it« unilluinin.ted side .. . faint circle
?£ «1?J' K*" »i?" """"Jl^l and the .ky d Jkened IS
ih^rrTL ^».»»'™<» ^. *ith bUck flgutei flitting .cZ
. T"to ~,^ '"I!f » "•'"•'t? """^ *•"= «™«1» ««»"«». till •"
» 'torepoM. The Gre.tBe.rw.. out of sight in the north"
Ji.To'v'li!::^"'' «•'"='? W-B' »«» «"'th«'n Scottish sky "we,;
nght overhe.d, .nd m their accustomed place on the southeni
honitn W.8 the Southern Cross. "outnem
Next day promised to be a stirring one, and we were to
.natch only a short sleep in our dothS, yrt sl~p Hng^ ^
l^tU^C'*' *^'»k"* '^^r'^^m the moon d^^'tte
western hills and the stars blaze brighter, till the constant
challenge of the sentinels m^ fainter and ibUvion s^fn "*
■' ;jiii
VI
TTLK or Hashezm
Tm next mcniing, , 'day, the 20th Jfarch. wc w( aroused
at four o'ckMsk, wasl i and breakfasted by cTnUieriThtln
our tent .uckled on our belts and revolvers, ^ weU as oir
out The whole camp was m a bustle ; in the dark men w«e
oadmg up the mules and camels, saddling the ho^s and
Umg m to their companies and regiments in r^^nU
snouts and bugle calls. '^Soon all was™ for tK^ '"
hu? V "v.*""^^ *•'! f^* ^"' Company were aUmou^^ed
but Mol«mmed and I went on foot, a^d along w.th ?he oth*;
bodies of men we marched out to the plain beyond thl ^»™^
just as it became light, and were thereKS altriZ
before advancing towards the mountains. There must haCe
stood m the rear we cou d see far awav on the rioht n,. .„, j
regiments on foot, their bearer company under Dr. E—
I .
'I \m
14 REMINISCENCE OF THREE CAMPAIGNS
behind them with the baggage, and our own company on the left
behind the Guards Regiments, to whom it had been attoched.
But instead of the clean trim unifonns, handsome war array,
and music, to which one was used at home, nearly all the
British troops were clad in the then uncommon brown cotton
(khaki), dirty and worn untidily as the men pleased, with
unshaven chins and unwashed faces, set oft by OMasional
blue spectacles. The rough men and badly groomed horses
conveyed something of ^he impression of a lot of day-latourers
rather than of soldiers; the only reaUy picturesque fellows
were those of the Indian contingent, dressed m flowmg jackets,
putties, or leggings, and turbans; and one remarked that
the turbans of their cavalry had enwound in them the circles
of steel as large and broad as reaping hooks. Superficially
everything was untidy and disorderly ; but the underlying
reality belied this appearance, for the men stood firm and
steady in their ranks, were well armed, and behaved excellently.
Presently the line moved forwards, and in the clear cool
morning air walked on for many miles, halting occasionally
to rest the men, and after some hours we approached the
hills. As we were advancing, the plain, which was at first
sandy and bare, became broken up by ravines and pnckly
bushes ; then it became hard and stony, the coral giving
place to rocks and stones, with shrubs, at first small gorse-
iike bushes, which became higher till they were thickets of
mimosa, flat-topped and ten feet high, among which every
man wound his way as b^t he could, so that our ranks were
broken, and the various companies got greatly mixed. Every
now and then there occurred a pause to re-form in order.
Signs of caution now began to be evident in the method of
advance. The cavalry rode forward and passed singly or
in small groups between the trees considerably ahead of us ;
signalling now and then with flags from the top of small
eminences as to what they saw or heard. According to the
signals we followed and reached the base of the nearest of
the hills, named Dihilbat, as I was told, about eight or ten
miles from Suakin. It may have been a couple of hundred
feet high, seemed isolated from the other hills, and had some
structure resembling a rude hut on the top. A solitary
horseman was detached, and sent up to ascertain whether any
of the Arabs were there ; and it was a fascination for the
whole force below to watch with breathless interest this
one man as he climbed en his horse up the steep bare sides
of the hill in zig-zags, so as to explore every hollow for hidden
foes. We expected every moment to see him shot down,
but no shot was fired and no enemy seen, and he eventually
EGYPTIAN WAR
"5
f,^t. f ^°l °' '•''.•''"■ Next other horsemen, to the
number of perhaps a dozen, crept similarly up, joined him
The Arabs had abandoned their outpost there, left the smal
back mto the mtenor of the mountains '""ner
«nH i^"*i'l'* jT *"?'' P'""* "••"« « company of engineers
and camels loaded w.th timber, went up to the top of Sai
to construct a walled fort and strong redoubt there and
General Graham, with some artillerymen and three^'nons
«™'"«f temporarily to watch and direct turihe^e^Z '
w.t^!ft °^'"' ''J^^ ^^^ exception of the baggage which
two ^;Z? """* if ° " Bquare-the bearer compf nies and
two Gardner guns m the centre, the sides and front formed of
regiments of mfantry and the Guards under Gen^lp,^
mantle-and it advanced into the defiles betweS^X hUls
fur some other four miles through rather more^t^n JSuntiv
As we marched we often started game : hares raram~»g «„;
feet ; p.geons and larger birds fluttered overhead • and vet
higher up circled hawks and vultures on the outT^k for fo^
Among the Guards one noted now, for the first time, a st^t
old gentleman in plain clothes, on horseback, said to ^
J;? ^I~'.? ^°"^'"' •»'°"«' °f *•>« Guards, who had defied
a considerations of age and prudence m order to ac^mpan v
tas beloved regiment to the field. Meantime theTvalrv
rode ah«»d and far out on either side, scouting and sigSaHin^
and in and out among the mimosa trees we walked^ r^f'
seeing very little but the hills on all sides. E^n the inte^st'
however, in the events which aU now felt to be im^nding^uy
r^unS T.^ divert our minds from the attra^ive Es
around. It was a beautiful cool forenoon, and manv Drettv
blossoms began to bestrew our path. A yelW-floO
shrub, with blossoms like small roL, and lar^^ff lZ«
w^ermi^r Jiirx -z^^^^d^^
outspread in umbrella form, prevented ouTsilngTore^^w
tt.an two hills or rather twin conical peaks, in fro^^f us
te l^nf n r^r*^ K*""* 'H " 8°'8« *° '^' northw^rS lay ?he
wells of Deberet, where the Arabs were lying in wait for us
having concentrated as they fell hack.^A^ yet however'
not an enemy was seen, the silence was absolute and we
slowly advanced until we were halted at tl^ f^t of th^
S"h PP'=^ l?!i'' ^™ ^°"' ''™'J'«1 f«et hSi, which was
called Hamob Adarob. The stony ground we%to^ on was
'■ I'il
. ■*>
i6 REMINISCENCES OF THREE CAMPAIGNS
almost flat, with considerably less bush and more open spaces,
in which were growing wild govuds and tniiling plants with
large melon-like fruits.
At this point our force was divided. A portion was sent
to the northward to the village and wells of Deberet, which
was found deserted ; they formed square there, but I under-
stood they sustained no attack. Some skirmishers were
sent out, also to the north, to occupy a little hill ; it too was
unoccupied by the enemy ; in fact no Arabs were to be seen
at all. Next our square moved forward to attack the double-
pointed hill, and the Marines along with some of the Sikh
infantry were thrown out to ascend its nearer side. Up this
they slowly climbed in skirmishing order to the nearer summit,
which was separated from the farther and higher one by a
valley. They went ever upwards, without a shot being
fired, and we watched them intently until they had reached
the crest and began to show above it ; when all at once the
stillness of nature and the tension of expectation were broken
by tremendous volleys of musketry from the Remington
rifles of the Arabs who, - > far as I could judge, in a force
of several hundreds, occupied the farther crest beyond the
valley which was now wreathed in clouds of smoke from the
discharges.
Dr. B had been called away from our bearer com-
pany' to do duty somewhere else, and I had mounted his
horse. I was riding with the other oflicers of my bearer
company in the middle of the square ; one of them. Dr. C ,
had just dismounted, and L , a young surgeon from one
of the field hospitals, had mounted C 's horse and ridden
up to his place beside me, while E of the Second Bearer
Company had, without waiting for orders, run forward to
ascend the hill and give his services to the Marines and Sikhs
— an act of splendid promptitude.
The instant the firing broke out our square stopped, and
poor I, gave a loud cry and fell backwards oft his horse.
With a spring like a cat Sergeant H sprang forward and
caught him ere he reached the ground ; the others of us were
down in an instant, found he had been shot through the left
breast, dressed his wound and transferred him to a litter beside
which I remained to look after him, while W and the others
hurried off to attend to the other men who had fallen by the
same volley or by the subsequent shots which now rolled like
loud thunder from the hill. It was fortunate that the Arabs
fired so high that not more than a dozen men were hit in our
square at this time.
Hitherto our troops on the nearer summit had returned
EGYPTIAN WAR
17
no reply to the Arabs' fire, but now they began to return the
volleys from the farther peak, and the rattle of musketry
contmued from both sides for about a quarter of an hour, by
which time our soldiers had silenced the enemy's fire, and now
crept down mto the valley and up the other side to where the
enemy had been posted, drove them from their positions and
P?"""™*™* into them as they retreated down the back of the
u-lri. J '"* *° ***"■ opponents firing so high our men on the
hUl had none seriously injured, but the Arabs suffered heavily
and left many of their dead upon the mountain.
During this engagement our cavalry, the Bengal Lancers,
had gone round to the back or south of the hill to cut off the
enemy, but found themselves engaged there by the Arabs
descending from the hill and another strong body at ite foot •
and immediately we saw our horsemen fleeing back like chaff
before the chargmg enemy, entirely .lable to face the onset
of these agile footmen among the ocnse thorny trees. The
fugitives came rushing into our square, bearing some of their
wounded, one of whom, Y - ior R , was speared through the
right thigh, and many both men and horses bore spear
wounds, fortunately not of great severity. The cavalry had
no sooner entered the square than the Arabs, who were now
being fired down upon by our soldiers on the hill, appeared in
pursuit, and fell like a flood on the southern side of the square
which received them with volleys from their rifles and dis-
charges growlmg out from the Gardner guns, though the latter
soon became choked ; but the reception was too much for the
enemy, and they retreated without being able to break the
square.
I was at the north-eastern comer of the square while this
charge took place, and did not see much of the repulse, as I
was busied with L and Major R and attending to
others, but when I went to see if any more of the wounded had
not received attention, I witnessed a body of some thousands
of Arabs come pouring towards our square from the bush on
the north, and as the front rank of our soldiers knelt down
to Are, one could perceive the spaces between the trees whence
they were emerging black with dancing figures rushing on
and leaping from bush to bush like an inky flood. Into these
masses our men poured their fire, and the impetuosity of the
cha^ diminished, so that by the time they had come within a
hundred yards they were mostly mown down by the tremendous
hail of bullets. At last only a few crouching bounding figures
were seen, as they plunged sideways into cover ; then there
were none at all. Our musketry ceased as they fell before the
withering storm of balls.
,1 :■ If
. 1
m
m!
18 REMINISCENCES OF THREE CAMPAIGNS
In the midst of the smoke of the rifles (for in this war only
black pow er war as yet in use) and the dust raised by the
striking bullets and the falling bodies and rushing feet, I saw
one brave act done. A handsome Arab chief riding a beautiful
horse dis"iounted in the thick of the slaughter, picked up a
wounded comrade, set him behind him on his horse, and amid
showers of balls p de up a slight eminence and disappeared
^-ith him into the bush. Some of our men cheered him as he
escaped, and so, very herrtily, did I.
In these charges on the square there was very little flrinc
by the Arabs from their rifles. Only the leaders appeared
to carry lireurms. One Arab boy of about twenty, clearly a
chief among them, was conspicuously mounted on a fine white
ramel, and showed great heroism in leading them on. He was
shot through the fleshy part of both thighs, and feU so close to
the square that his followers did not dare to attempt to rescue
hun. When he fell his camel bounded away at great speed,
and was seen for some time leaping over the bushes as it made
iu ^^y- Pr°baWy wounded like its master, along the slope of
the hiU to the north of us. The rider was presently piaked up,
broupht into the square, and after his Remington rifle, spear,
shield, and a couple of cartridges had been taken from hiniand
he had been searched for other weapons, and those he had
conflsrated as trophies by some of his captors, his wounds
were dressed and he was conveyed along with our own
wounded to a military hospital in Suakin, where he recovered
ana was eventually set free.
When the roar of the rifles from the mountain, multiplied
by the reverberations from the surrounding hills, broke out
so suddenly, and one charge on the square was followed by
the other, it was cunous to watch the behaviour of the different
persons. Our officer^ rode about or stood quite calm and
apparently unconcerned ; many of the soldiers ducked their
heads when a stray bullet whizzed past them; while the
Hindoo porters and doolie bearers (litter carriers) crouched
flat down in rows behind the bushes or in the slight hollows of
the ground, remmding one of figs in a box or salmon in
a pool.
The main attack having been repulsed, the Arabs ventured
only now and then to re-advance, and some volleys of musketry
were necessary to check them ; but their ' snipers ' (a term
that had not then, I think, come into use) kept up individual
firing from the bushes and thickets, which seemed to do more
harm to wagons and htters than to men and horses. We had
I™1„"?K J^^ more particularly to our wounded. especiaUy
among the Sikhs who had been brought into our square ; and
EGYPTIAN WAR
'eYveTrn'=S°«t4*:S° ^X' °'5-' "-«• '-«.'
of them had se„*t to^ne ont illustr^"'''' ^°""'' "«' °"«
sketch of myself kneelhtah^lh ■f^.?^P'^ '" ^"don a
attending to\1m fS ^d t J th"^ fJ"^"." "« "«"
scenes which I aftema^saw inlSe EnXh'1. »* "^^ "'' ""
were uncommonJy faithfnlTt^th ^"^''^Vu'"''/"'"* P»Pe"
us by their marLmen for s!me iirnP^I! ' V t*'' '^™^^««
charged the north-eastern coTcr ofVt.^^^^" ^
the positions whence they ^rcome an^ .r "*"***=^ *°
await our attacking them irtu™ iJ^ 'i''^"' **"""* *»
»ent out against then, and the Ap w" ""l ."^^whers were
were tum?d upon them but th'i ^""' l"^ ""^ ^PP««'*d
much impression beyond comnemLTlf "f^ ^""'^ *°^''''=
distance. ^ compelling them to retire for a little
first -t' haTbe'Tn'Sitd^alout^r P-"* °^ *"« '^^y- The
twelve so we tho..^f o'^f^^^.^trbTt' a^ T •^'^'P-'
visions had been fo>-otten with f^ i' ^^ ' °"'" Pro-
there followed a t^iouThouf and a^^^f '^ ' "'^"'«'* ' «>
broiled in the sun and envied thn^V^u"? "^'''^ ««
thought to provide themselves witwV''°>'* *'"= f""'
cold coffee. "emseives with a biscuit or a flask of
Somewhere about two o'cWW t„« „i l^
having been completed for otupat ?n I^/"''* °" »'hilbat
zanba of cut thorn bushed „,T surrounded by a
The men on the h^ls a^^tC ,^'oTat°the''*T "? t^^^'
were withdrawn ; they march^n?!f ^ ^^^ "^ Jiebttet
our square remaned to Sthe,tr ^/^ *°*"' ^^'e
afresh, with somecavalrvbSrerJnm^; ^"^ "'"'* ^°""«d up
No sooner had it also _^^'^?r"'''^*=- '"'*» interior
turbances bX out afeh the Ar2 "*'fu* *•"" *»"= di^"
down anew on our sqvS^ 'a^d rec^t^," "!f """"^ P°"««l
Guards faced about, dJ^" hem off^ht^,h"'"'ff^ '*• The
continuing the withdrawal and reTe^vi^th^'^'' '**^'*"y
renewed musketry when the n.«h^7 * , *"*'">' with
got even in the^hiSof Se busT^L*';"* '""'^ "«^"
yards. After experiencing thefn.rH '*'*'''°,ten or twenty
the A«bs hung^n the^XstK^TrLt"'''' •''^^^•
and from very close ranire keot i.n 7^. r '^^^'^'S square
which men 4an to feff thSL a'^rfo^««''"8 "«*= fi^« under
unpractised ^ like mine t Tgan to l^t""""* "J" '^° «"
ugly business, for the terrific! ho^th~-T''^'"* '*« »"
hurried forward to the »fer W of tL^""*^' r"* °*''"».
^d. part empty, and the thinlLe of s^w4^^"~ i^^ '^s
rearwaid side, seeing themselves unsup^m '^0^^
,'■ H
m 'J
'!]',
ao REMINISCENCES OF THREE CAMPAIGNS
deserted, oommenoed also to hasten their steps and bulge
inwards, so that it appeared as if a breach in the formation
were about to follow. The numbers of the wounded oom-
menced to increase rapidly, and we of the bearers were speedily
taxed to the utmost of our capacity, and all, men and officers
alike, had to lend a hand along with other soldiers in carrying
the stretchers. The Arabs still firing high, most of the casual-
ties took place among the mounted men. When matters were
really looking queer, a halt was called, the square was re-
formed, and the field guns from a small eminence opened with
shrapnel upon all the groups of Arabs who could be espied.
This gained us time to look properly after our dead and wounded
and get them transferred to the ambulance carts and litters.
The Arabs appeared to have suffered severely on the whole
and to have been taught a lesson, for they now desisted from
their attempts to break the square, gave over their firing, and
the rest of the march to Dihilbat was accomplished in quiet
and at leisure. When Dihilbat was reached we observed that
the smart engineers had already, in the few hours since we
had passed, crowned it with no fewer than four forts of stone
roofed with wood, and made a strong zariba at a distance
round it, leaving a clear zone of fire for its defenders, for in it
were now left a large number of troops with provisions and
artillery. While waiting for the completioi of these arrange-
ments we found our luncheons, and as the labours of forti-
fication were being completed we watched some of the artillery
below making beautiful practice on black groups of the enemy
on the hills around, bursting their shells right over them and
leaving sprawling masses bestrewing the ground whence the
survivors were in flight.
The rest of the day was less rich in military events. We
marched slowly homewards across the dusty desert and reached
camp just as night fell. I visited the base hospital to see
how Dr. T and Surgeon T disposed of the wounded
there ; I saw their reception, their being skilfully cared for
and put into the tents by kind and gentle hands, all of which
greatly impressed ma; and then Dr. Wilson and I walked
home among the encampments of the tired and sleeping
troops, challenged every now and then by the sentries, washed
the grime and sweat off our dirty faces, had a welcome meal
of tea and dry bread, and turned in to sleep, both of us toler-
ably tired out by our twenty miles of walking under the
tropical sun.
EGYPTIAN WAR
at
VII
The Plains abouhd Suakin
DuwNO the ten days that followed the actions at Deberet
Wells and theHamob Adarob Hills, which is generally termed
the battle ot Hasheen, most of my time was spent in studying
the methods of the military medical department. Every
possible fecihty for this was affoided me by Dr. Bamett, the
prmeipal medical officer, whose goodness I even now, after
the lapse of more than thirty years, continue to think of with
gratitude. He gave me a free hand. Though still attached
to the bearer company, I was permitted to share Dr. B "s
tent m the base hospital, where its P.M.O., Dr. T , with
"^- *^7~T *."'* Surgeon T , received me most fraternally,
and at all tunes access was given me to the Gangei hospital
ship, so that I could study the arrangements from the front
backwards.
I have abeady partially described the work at the ftont.
uurmg the fighting it chieBy consisted in the application of
dry antiseptic dressings to the wounds, and the administra-
tion of morphia hypodermically to reUeve the pain and permit
of the wounded being transported. Out in the desert there
was no water, even the water bottles Lad long been emptied,
and as every appliance had to be carried on shoulder haver-
sacks, dry antiseptic dressings were the only possible ones,
and no others, it may be added, could have given better
results.
The transport of the wounded was a question which had
an especial fascination for me. My own bearer company
had only ambulance wagons, much like those of the present
day J but the second company, under Dr. E , had in
addition mule cacolets (a sort of sitting panniers), and camel
litters as weU as mule litters. I tried and was personally
transported on all of these, and the conclusion I came to was
that though cacolets were tolerable for slightly wounded,
and litters on mule or camel back far from uncomfortable
under oidinary conditions, yet for such country as existed
round Suakin, roadless, with thorny bushes and deep gullies
the ambulance wagon was on the whole the best conveyanc^
tor the seriously wounded. Where the gradients were too
t^at for the ambulance wagons, the hand stretcher was
still possible; and where the ground was level and unen-
cumbered, most excellent, though slow, was the Indian doolie
ol which we had some, for the shuffling gait of the Indians
ahnost elimuiated the unavoidable swinging and jolling of the
'1
If
i I "
22 REMINISCENCES OF THREE CAMPAIGNS
other foimi of conveyance. I felt lure that on the whole
the wounded who were brought back ttom Haiheen in dooliea
»n°»n>bulance wagons suffered the least.
The doolie bearers themselves were a quaint study
Dunng the day they squatted together in one place, made a
small enclosure about two feet across, of mud, stones, or
empty meat tms, resembling a child's house, built a minute
nrq>Iacc with a semicircle of stones, tins, or such like materials,
and baked over a few sticks laid in it tempting chupt.tties like
the large white ' baps ' we eat at breakfast in Scotland, or made
a stew of rice and butter. They would not eat our food, but
cooked m their own brass pans or flasks and used their own
leathern water-bottles. At night, before they lay down in
a heap together, covered by a rug or two, they took off all
their clothes, and the spaces of the camps were strewn with
naked black bodies engaged in cleaning themselves.
The base hospital, into which the patients from the field
were received, was situated on a coral platform ten feet in
, I"* , . *'~"* *^° hundred across, a mile to the north-wost
of Suakm. On the northern end of the platform a redoubt
liad been constructed, one of the circle of outlying defences
beyond the bastions of El-Khaf, and hence the base hospital
usually went by the name of the ' H ' Redoubt. Its smiical
work was admirably conducted by Dr. T , who had been
sent out as operator from Netley Hospital, where he had
been Assistant Professor of Surgery. His skiU could haidly
have been surpassed, and during the days following the fight
at Hasheen there was much to test it in the work done in
the operation tent, the interest of which sometimes attracted
Ijcneral Graham as a visitor. The medical cases were under
the charge of Its P.M.O., Dr. T and Dr. P , whose
stall and kindness I had frequent occasion to admire. The
comfort of the patients in the base hospital was very well
cared for, they were lodged in large oblong Indian soldiers'
tmts. Identical with those occupied by the chief medical
officers ; during the day the side curtains were removed
for coolness, so that the inmates lay under the canvas loof
alone, beneath which the fresh breezes played over them.
The junior medical oflicers had only bell tents. From che
base hospital the patients were evacuated as quickly as
possible to the Ganges, or other hospital ships ; some of these
cruised about outside the port to refresh such men as were
likely to return to duty ; the severer cases were taken to
huez, on their way home to England, and the gravest only
were retamed m the base hospital or on board the Gong^.
aut however well affairs were managed as regards the patients
EGYPTIAN WAR a,
r^^k lJ?.ilf^^^°"u.*° ^ ""'*'''''' '^"^ «>« by auction
Nrtley, and received his commission in the army medic^ll
siiakin my first considered impressions of the British amiv
medical service, and because, as wUl be seen lat^ thev W
*»me influence on oy future, I give them he« as they we«
noted down at the time. While it was impossfbie t7,^t"
hold an unstinted admiration of the qualitrof the m^ c«l
officers, non-commissioned officers, an3 nui^s vet the '^
viction forced itself upon me that ^mewheiTthew Us some'
t o°i;rf T *° P'*"' '^''" ^®"«"=y in Se poS Zch
It ought to have occupied. I repeat that better work ~
^?Ln "^ *' circumstances, hiTve been done by any Cdv
of men and women ; but even at that time the med^i,^! ^S
^|r^-^4-XTrrs„a^^^^^^^^^
fi
1 1 • 1,
-.1 Vi
34 REMINISCENCES OF THREE CAMPAIGNS
adjuited when it wai almovt too ktc, thoush in Egypt this did
not perhapi nutter lo much si it would have done on a
greater and more urgent field of operationi, against an enemy
of larger powers and resources. The rank and file of the
Army Medical Corps were not of the class whom one would
have liked to see in a body of men sent out by Britain to save
the lives rf its soldiers in the flekl. One could not honestly
call them the refuse of the army, they possessed many admir-
able non-commissioned ofBcers and others, but it was not
difficult to detect that the best men, physically and other-
wise, were in the other branches of the army, while it was the
residuum only which were attracted into the ranks of the
army medical department.
Again, the other services of the army, the artillery, engineers,
army service corps, and the infantry, were polished and
organised to as near perfection as human ingenuity could
ensure it, and were as perfect as Britain could make them,
but the medical service fell distinctly behind, suffered con-
sequently in its efficiency, and was regarded as the Cinderella
of the army. Its officers were like a handfiil of rich jewels
left neglected and uncared for in some repository until they
should chance to be required, while the other services were
like similar gems, valued, polished, and set in some gorgeous
diadem where their excellence was visible to the whole world.
I acquired the conviction that the army medical service
could never attain its rightful position until it was put in a
place of honour at least equal to that of any other branch,
until it was recognised that the education and training of ito
officers entitled them to be ranked at least equally with the
other officers in the fighting forces, until its ranks were re-
cruited with the very best and most highly-classed material
the country affords, until their Director-General occupied a
position equivalent to that of the Commander-in-Chief of
Army, and until in fact our nation had come to understand
that it is not less important to save the lives of its battle-
worn men and officers than to destroy those of the enemy.
While I was c ccupied in studying medical affairs and spend-
ing my days between the bearer company, the base ' --pital,
and the Ganget, there were plenty of other matters of interest
going on. Opinions had been freely expressed by some that
the battle of Hasheen had taught a lesson to the Arabs ; and
that all the fight had gone out of them in consequence. But
this was quickly proved to be by no means the case, for the
very night after Hasheen we were kept long awake by the
crash of rifle volleys from the redoubt which had been estab-
lished on Dihilbat, showing that it was being subjected to a
EGYPTIAN WAR ,j
h«i been foiled •wh?oi,l.«?r» '"? *»"*" «» '•»* «>e ArmU
It W8. not .gafn .^iiei f^P'T' '^'" " '" the morning.
from the enemy on its outZd i™,™" ""''i*?*'* *» « «»«"»•
WM mided almoit nSitlv ,m.n ™^^" V'l •*•"? '*'*'^ "'^
in the dark through £twLT»i\S3t! °' *5' ^"^ «'*«?'"«
up individual, o'smau^un.^""''*""'^ ""''■«■ «"tting
them atowst to Piec^ wiS«feirl T'' "'»•«'"«• WkinJ
and doing their work^iT-iStlv wSh f '^.~»»-'"'ndled .words!
whieh dS not cTduci to iuirt^Wn"r«- ^''™» ' «^'"t«
ventured to undress, ^^^1 . n ? °f "'«5"'' »" '^at few
might chance to o"ur ^ ' ''"P* ''"^y '"' wUtever
ft'S«X"'oTl!'m™"'''^K!L""°"«' """^"y of the enemy
ford^uSiTith tt^'Si'^ P'es^ntly toV elaSS
wilway from the doS" J^! ??*T' '^*"«" °' constructing .
was pressed^on, a'^d f^^ *•" '^•*^ *»''«= Nile at B^
«fctyof the wirkbV^.V.N?"'^"" " '""^ *° "»"« the
of it which w« bSS/^L t' r* °l'*;*'°"« '*"> portion
Ot««>. along a ^ ff ^f^J''"**"^" ''y H«ndoi^ and
north-west Since^jJ^ tr,i!.??T'u''"* *«" """«» to the
be Stationed at TamaU ^uTflft^,"''' -^^ ''" »*'«^«1 to
another and stronge. ?oJ«^f^ "'"''" *° ^'"^ «'"t''-west,
upon it and giHto & the~"15±f~''y '" '"^^''n™
necessary to Sinkat Tn^Thl, J^ere, proceedmg ufterwaids if
mountal t:e^''r:Z't' ^^I'^J^"^ ''y t"^<"^ the
this last direction was exnect^^!, k^Iw?™"'- ^"<=^s '"
en»,y i„ this part oTthe Kn ^"^ ""' P"''" °^ 'he
ligi^"" ^i^^'^'^Vef Lrir^ ^ " ^ <'»y = -
al»o on the open plain where tC 1°"''' °" ^^' ^'^"' h"t
"ted by shells flyiSg "eld tl H M Tn" °^^"^ P""'''"'
Poups of Aiabs sDiedf.v„«kr"-^-^'''P*'"' aimed at
»^ryice was startto^i'^^i/^^p'^ *T-, °"'' T?*' Sunday
^siting the base hosp/tel h^^tl^™ ^"^^ """^ ' had been
the forenoon to the Zp whL tW •""% "•«* ^™t on in
^nch. We learned ?£t ou'f^end T*^ "' V""^ ^o^
gone out in the morning with a pTrti „ u ~~ ^~7-' ^"^
who were preparing thf wax- fJ^ a **"'''" *"^ others.
' !i'i
rj. I
II !
Ih
36 REMINISCENCES OF THREE CAMPAIGNS
oominuid of G«ncnl M'Neill, and hence the larifa* wm bv
lome called Baker'i, by other* M'NeiU'i wrib*. I ihaU
continue to call it by the latter name. The lervice was con-
ducted by an army chaplain and wai approaching iti eonehi-
(ion when an immenne bunt of firing became audible away
to the aouth-west, while over the top of the buih there rose
gnat cloudfi of amoke and duat, and theie continued to loud
and long that there remained no doubt that a very lerious
battle was taking place. Wilion hurried out of his bathroom
and we both hastened out to the camp, where we learned
that a considerable engagement had indeed been going on,
that many fresh troops !<ad been ordered out to the lariba,
and that consequently a few only were left to guard the camp.
We were all preparing to withdraw for the night into one of
the forts, leaving thi^ tents and baggage to take their chance,
when we saw the reinforcements returning and learnt that
there had been a gieat fight, but no seriou<) disaster. Their
report was that t)ie forces at the zariba had been heavily
attacked from the bush, but had inflicted very severe loss upon
the enemy ; so that, when the relief column had arrived, they
were found not tC' have been required, and returned to Suakin
to man the camps there.
A party which had gone to fortify Handoub, in the opposite
direction, had simultaneously been attacked, but not so
seriously.
Straggling fugitives tiom M'Neill's zariba dribbled in during
the evening, some of whom had barely escaped with their lives.
An Irishman, an officer of the medical department, was un-
armed when the onslaught happened, but contrived to possess
himself of an axe with which the bush was being cut down,
defended himself with it so effectually as to have killed and
disabled the Arabs who assailed him, and succeeded in fleeing
back to Suakin in a half-mad condition fh>m the excitement
and perils he had undergone. Wounded were also brought
back, and by piecing together the accounts obtained from these
sources the following version of the battle came to be generally
accepted in the camp as being as nearly as possible the true
narrative of what had occurred at the zariba. The column
which had been despatched to occupy it had reached it without
any adventures, and a portion of the force was retained under
arms while others were sent to cut down the surrounding
brushwood, clear a free zone around, and pile the thorny
bushes into a ring so as to constitute a rariba. Some were
also employed in bringing the loaded camels and baggage into
the interior of the enceinte which was being formed, and a gap
was left in the ring of the defenders through which the go<ids
EGYPTIAN WAR ay
impkment they could wiSd for thrir H^f.^ ' "S'""* '"^
who had been ^.ZIa ^ ^ "**""'' *" '"'"• The troopd
£9"uY:hr&rs;rdra^^^^^^^
^^^£rXoto^^^^^^^^
:^rd:Vh'';^xre'strr^^^^^^^^^^
sKle many were killed or wound^, nuXr, of th^ L °"
fctae&ofi!"""!' \^°^ ""'• """'P't^' »«d ac "mTnied
ineattacked force, and who witnessed the whole aetior
Furauve quiet for some days afterwarHs w- i i ii, »
u?rj^:«*sfvi^"?r^^^
wanT nit hot Z n K^^" ''"'*'*• ^ **"* '* '^'«' ■"'""y
■I ';
28 REMINISCENCES OF THREE CAMPAIGNS
drops blotted out all objects more than a feet few distant,
and it was usually some time before the sun dispelled this,
and sent it away in trails over the distant mountains. Fine
displays of ' mirage ' >'ers often witnessed on the plains.
With the advent of the sunshine began the activities of the
house flies, whose name was legion, and who were worthy of
their historical fame as one of the plagues of Egypt I Our
noses, eyes, lips and hands were covered with swarms, and
an unending struggle with hand and handkerchiefs was
required to keep them off, so that reading and writing were
most difilcult and vexatious. At mealtimes our plates were
blackened with them, and upon the sugar, tea, jam, etc., their
arrays were so thick that no space existed between them, they
were there often two or three deep on each other's backs.
Considering whence they came, the filthy things around on
which they had been feeding and breeding, the wounds,
typhoid fever, and even worse, which they had deserted in
order to visit our table, they were a most disgusting accom-
paniment to our meals, even if the food and liquids cooked
for us had not been already black with the dead bodies of
those who had been stewed with our victuals. Their numbers
sufficed to account for many diseases spreading as they were
doing.
In this camp of ours on the shore of the Red Sea the happen-
ings wore endlessly varied, and not wanting in fascination
for such as myself. At one time we would be sitting in the
sunshine or shade quietly engaged in our various occupa-
tions, when we would feel a puff of wind from the north, and
behold 1 on the horizon, a low bank of brown cloud on which
the sun shone brightly ; it drew nearer and grew higher and
blacker, till it overhung us like a wall two hundred feet in
height, seeming to be solid and yet in motion ; the sun was
blotted out as the wall reached us, and we then sat in what was
reminiscent of Egyptian darkness for a few hours, when the
wind would fall, the dust cease, and we and every object were
half an inch deep in dry desert sand ; the sandstorm was over.
At another time one of us would seat himself on the ground
prepared to rest comfortably, when lo I scorpions would come
pushing themselves up through the sand, and the intended
repose would have to be hastily transferred elsewhere.
The manners and customs of the soldiers fettered one's
interest ; some of the regiments had their canvas houses put
up in the neatest of rows ; others contented themselves with
getting behind boxes or carts, or under a pole with a black
woollen blanket stretched from it to a wall of their accoutre-
ments and belongings, and so forming a house ; and happy
EGYPTIAN WAR 2^
a«ir„'^cS- ? ««" .:™;
headed audien^ of Wh^h ?h^ V™^ "^ '^^y'"' *» his bare-
a Scot brought un,^H.,fl^*f" simplicity appealed to
Knox Wn^rj^- ^'^ *^^ Calvmistic regimen of John
av^ion where t^eZmoTr "°"lf- ^""°^* »>''-« "-"^S
calls and words of cLZ»ni?K '""''''!"g *«»?". their bugle
One of these was the arrival of the Npw <5«.,fi. w i ^
tmgent, which was sent over by the PremTer s^r r^I^'^i^S"
and was the first bodv nf ~.iL- i * ' "^ George Reid,
visiting therr wa^ Z'aht^ / 1 '''T^ *'^''*- «"
contingent was ^nt inKe fi.°M ''^'' *^* .*'^'''' "«»*«"
VVinehLter rifles It S^ ^^hapf hf^^^Jt^r "^fT^i^
our own hosiitals unH K..™, "^ nardly be believed that
totally un«™^. ^n .^ """Panies were sent to Suakin
; 1
m
•I I
■I 'f
Ml''
il i ; i?
11 •r''']!
30 REMINISCENCES OF THREE CAMPAIGNS
in despatching unarmed men into warfare with remorseless
enemies, who had no regard for and probably had never even
heard of the Geneva Convention.
The second was my introduction to the National Aid Society
(afterwards to become the Red Cross Society), as represented
by its Commissioner, Mr. (afterwards Sir) Barrington Kennett,
which had, it has already been said, sent out two medical
men, Messrs. P and L , to do duty on board of the
Ganges, and Mr. Kennett now invited me to join his force,
which I willingly consented to do. He provided me with a
good horse, of which I stood much in need, attached to his
Society my Dongolese servant, Mohammed Achmet, and
otherwise gave me much aid and support. There was in
reality not much scope for the Society at Suakin ; its minis-
trations were mostly confined to distributing some welcome
luxuries, and assisting in whatever it was asked to do. But
even at Suakin it could be seen that in warfare under other
conditions than ours, its services might become of great value
indeed, provided that no jealousy on the part of the War
Office proved to be an obstacle. One could not but fear,
however, that there might be a serious difficulty with the
latter, in the tendency which besets every public department
to regard whatever it does as perfect and complete, and that
under no conceivable circumstances can it require any kind
of extraneous support, an attitude which is doubtless very
natural, but which interposes regrettable barriers to any
suggestions for its improvement.
The absence of newspapers,' except such as were too ancient
to be of much mterest, favoured the cuculation in the camp
of many rumours, often a fresh one every day. Thus one day
a war with Russia was reported as being imminent ; next day
it was said that our mutual differences had been arranged.
Some would have it that a peace with Osman Digna was being
negotiated, others asserted that Osman's forces were so
seriously broken that only a few small skirmishes might be
expected in the present campaign, that the Guards were to be
sent back to England and the bearer companies broken up ;
and the next day we were amazed to learn that Osman was
still in strong force at Tamai, where we were to march to fight
' Only a single newsleaf was, to my knowledge, printed for us and
eirculated at Suakin. It was neatly typed on a slip of bine paper, Bi by 34
inches in size, and its contents were as follows : —
' TiLioBui.— From Zobel to General Graham. ChineM Foreign OIBce rattled peac>
prejimmanes. Brigson declared France would iiuiBt on execution of treaty of Tientsin
and nwotiations tailing France would carry on war vigorously. Chamlnr Danuti«>
Toted Tonkin credit of 300 mUlious. Prince, Frinoeas Wales, Prince Victor left for
Uublm. atli April 1886.
EGYPTIAN WAR
to the north in oi5er to sh^tT*""*'^'' '"*'''''"« t^^'Plain
when the tone again bea.me^l^.K"'* «"«J-«~"se ; bu?
as the month oftwrewt aTend^r'* '"'•"'^•^'»' ""d
dications that the oeaselesT act?vffv "'f^^'^ were plain !„.
about to find express oTL:^'^f,°lGe""''l Gwham was
"Kloubton Dihilbat, asefu onTv as in* k"'"'""^"*' ^°^ the
evacuated and the troop ' H b™"StTf°" P°^*' '^''''
stores of provisions and esDeckll.^ * . ^^''^' "^^^ gwat
M'Neiil-s zariba and Xl^^her'^"*,^/ "^ !f"* °"' *°
n the base hospital were evacuated ^ 1,%'^'' "f*^ ^°""''«d
w.commotion. Tents we^e al! dtw 1 the whole camp
bemg demolished ; men, horses 1h T "'' "^ "•« ^^t of
bemg loaded with materials \;r/l ^^^ "'^^ P«<^g or
that we were to b^k u^trnp f nd "^.'^ '"^ «°"« ^"^h
canvas town was vaniSi^r^anH i^^ "" ^«"^i- Our
I therefore tumbled my fewVoH, T"^- " "^'^ P'am.
my blanket down to thTbl^rhosptla^d^rV ' ' '^Vt
the process of demolition. PreWous toft^l^' ''i, '^^•^h
men dmed in the open, where th^ !^ ^""^ °^' '-"eersand
stzck^, heaps of boxes aid sto4ten^""°'' ''f' ''**«'«1 '^i*
mmiition boxes, camp lant^rTc^m"*^^' P'^'i °J "««^' ""-
and one odds and ends tlSriron^f '"' ^'' ^''^ thousand
own tent was the last toTe sS Tn7 ""'^ "'^'"- O"^
ropes were slackened, itrte^t ™- I 1 *i ^^"^ »"" set its
waUs removed, and the L'fTnl'^^le^f^jf ?f -t, '^ T^^-^
The pleasant house that one had i^t . ^. * "^""^ °f dust,
and all prepared to trave" over th^ nk^f ^r" '*«°°«''hed,
ment. The camels were mad^to kn/nw ° ^'l' "'^ ^"«"«p.
oaded with our goods and cl^ter'^7?' their backs were
■ke the noise of men badly s^ckLwff T"'*^"' ""*^ms
the last to leave Manv H J!^' ' ^ ^^^* "^^rk we started
faihng off the camefe'lTd "°^ f" ^"^ *^« "^^
seeing them fairly on thefr wav for^^ ^"P''"*^'«'«fter
and 1 wended our way on LT Z^ ./^^ "'^^^ Mohammed
Ifts of the base h^ ^&d7wat' '^^* '^*^"^^ *» t^
of a tent there. Ne^xt day c^mpk^tr^'T'r'^ * ^^^
the entrenchments which su3d^ <!V*°.^°'™"»t of
•■one being left garrisoned, artrwtl!'^;^^^'-^"';^
.1 ,
32 REMINISCENCES OF THREE CAMPAIGNS
were concentrated outside the suburb of El-Khaf, on the
south-west of the city and harbour ; and as the base hospital
(' H ' Redoubt) was thus left open to being attacked, its plat-
form was fortified by a four-foot wall built round it and some
Krupp guns were added to its artillery. My bearer company
now slept in the open, but as the cold during the nights was
somewhat intense. Dr. Bamett arranged that 1 should spend
them in the base hospital, where Dr. B kindly allowed
me to share his accommodation.
The expected advance, however, hung fire, none of us knew
why. Some surmised, and there may possibly have been some
truth in the conjecture, that Osman Digna had withdrawn
from Tamai into the interior, and had even sent envoys under
a flag of truce to trc " for terms of peace. Nearly all hoped
that the latter might be true, for even our keenest fighters
were wearied of seeing so many brave men, who were only
defending their land and homes, being mown down in a hope-
less contest with our superior weapons. In the begmnmg of
April, however, the decision to advance was finally come to,
and as so far I had not seen the field hospitals at their work
during an action, I obtained Dr. Bamett's approval to my
accompanving the forces who were to storm Tamai. Mo-
hammed had behaved with so much courage at Hasheen, and
begged not to be left behind when he was offered permission
to do so, that I arranged to take him to look after the horse
which was to carry me.
vm
Tjmai
On the first of April, hardly expecting any instant advance,
I sallied out beyond the precincts of the camp for a stroll,
along with one of the ^ung doctors from the base hospital,
roamed about for thi - rtours, followed the lines of railway
which were being laid down towards Berber, and on the way
back called at the encampment of the First Bearer Company.
There we were to learn that our elusive friend Osman Digna
had really been located at Tamai, and that beyond any possi-
bility of doubt the army was next morning to go out to fight
him. Rather regretting that I had wearied myself by the
long walk. I ran back to the base hospital, humedly packed
into a Wolseley valise the requisites for an expedition of a
few days' duration, and rode back to the company, leavmg
Mohammed to foltew. Having, as I already said, not yet seen
a field hospital in action, I could not miss the chance of gomg
EGYPTIAV WAR 33
A°l'\u^"^ ^ '^'"^ ^"^ "" *»s bustle and activity in the
tt\ .'/'* ''"*^*'"' ^ ^'" P"t "P ^ere down, and the
babel of tongues and neighing of horses, the packing of mul«
glare ot the huge fires where they were bumina all that thev
:.^ri L"*"^ -'*•' *"-■ «"- *"» ™p-'°" o-'^ S
li<«!l' ^ j1^ '^'*'' *••* headquarters' mess near the left Watek
fmm ?h "^K T" """^^ ""^ °P^" "''y °" stretchers borrow^
from the ambulance wagons, hut it was long ere we^roT
The shouts of the soldiers and the bugle calls, combing wfth
an attack of sickness, the blazing camp-flies and the telms
head o/h mI ^tn, r'P'llIJ" *''^ P"^'" '""" ""' ^a"-
nenti ot H.M.S. Dolphin, robbed me of rest until it was lat^
m the evenmg, and hardly had I dropped ofT wheri wis
awakened at one o'clock by the bugles blowing ZlilU H
we got up. the moon rose and in i^, clear light our few amnee
nients were completed, we mounted our horses Jnd ^™S to
the part of the plain where the army was to muster. No long
t^ „nf' ^'"''r' *° ^°r " ^^ '^"''«'' '^ith the infantry on
n5 fl»n? ^"''?""« ^^^ *™"^P°^ ""'-^Is, while a screen
formation we advanced to M'NeiU's (Baker's) zariba Ftom
WnXThn- f'^' "f*' '."^ """ "'^ ~'al Vts. our S
being the thm telegraph wire which ran along the irr^und
over dusty tracks, where dead camels, horses, f nd mlTwere
putrefying m the sun and poisoning the air. Starting Thu^
rir "^f '?i^°' P.*'* °^°"' ""^y thi advantage of the moon!
ow 1"h 1V^^ "-g*" '^"'P^^t"^. which was indeed nfpSy
low, and the zariba was reached before the sun became vfr^
^11^^ u "^'^ unstrained to hold their noses, an? it
n Z '^n ^""sing to see a whole aimy in thi, ktttode
e^entTth^tVS'- *?k°'«'=* '^' '""^^ "^^^^ '^^ the ^m
events which had just been enacted there. *
hehind^nV^t^*? ^"^^ "?""* sketches, and arrange to leave
behmd all that I could not carry on my horse, when, after the
deiay of a couple of hours, we set off again for Tama It was
kng before we approached it. The |round we^a sed over
became more undulating, the density of the spiny trees a^d
bushes tesened. while the place of the coral Vas teken Sy
Z fJ"**'?"™. ?*°"'^'' P'^™^ "f e^''^- quartz, fekpar
and fragmenfs of jasper. The yellow rose-like flowe« the
g^ntian-hke thistles, and deliciously scented herbs relmblS
the tansy, were grateful to our senses, and th- varieties rf
anmial hfe were many ; doves, sand-grouse, gazel^. I and iSrL
I '
I m
■ ,■ I
■' • ■ 1 1
i
34 REMINISCENCES OF THREE CAMPAIGNS
rose before us, and among our feet were huge black ants,
snakes two feet long, spiders with bodies an inch in length,
and slugs with shells which plastered, like pellets of grey mud,
the stems of the bushes.
We had been riding thus for nearly sixteen hours, with no
food or water beyond the biscuits in our pockets and the
water in our bottles, and our horses, who had had neither
forage nor water, were getting well wearied with carrying
their riders or dragging the field guns through coppices, and
up and down the sides of water-gullies or rather dry ravines.
But we were leaving behind the horrid signs of the recent
carnage, where the bodies of the Mahdi's men in their uniforms
of white calico jackets edged and seamed with blue chevron
trimmings at neck and shoulders, and red lozenges down the
breast, were being torn in pieces by the vultures which had
gathered in multitudes ; we were in a clean pure country
where the cool evening air laved us gratefully after the heat
of the day ; and were druwing very near to Tamai, where we
were expecting to have a good and probably decisive fight.
It was considered possible that we might sustain an attack
at any moment, for the country favoured a surprise. After
we left M'Neill's zariba, the Engineers sent up a captive
balloon — I rather think it was the first ever used in warfare —
which was attached to a horse wagon, and followed and
signalled to us from a height of some two hundred feot ; but the
rising wind so tossed it that its occupant was brought down,
and when it was sent up again empty it rent and came down,
so that our scouts were all we had to depend upon to give us
the notice required to remedy the gaps in our square in case
of an onset by the Arabs. However, we sustained no molesta-
tion, though we continued to expect it, and when the long
day was ending and the last light departing from the sky,
and weariness was creeping over us all, and we espied on the
near horizon a rugged fortress-like hill covered with the forms
of men and horses silhouetted in black against the night sky,
we drew the breath which preludes the battle. We arranged
ourselves accordingly, but it was fortunately unnecessary,
for the forms on the skyline were only our own cavalry who
had seized the hill called Teselah, where it was intended to
form up for the storming on the morrow of Tamai, still two
miles distant. We were relieved not to have to encounter
an Arab charge in the dark.
Teselah stood out from the level of the country round like
the ruins of a great hill fort. We proceeded to give it breast-
works of stones, and fortified it with field pieces ; while others
formed a large square zariba at its northern foot, protecting
EGYPTIAN WAR
anyhow in the zariba • thSpw!~ ^ ^°'*" anywiiere and
So long as it wasd^rk t^J no reserved places.
an occasional shot'^toVr'oTnfXlrH't'r^^
sentries, though by one whirh ..fS r,°'' ''''*'>' ^""m neiVous
a soldier was kill^ Tone of the Ich "" '^^°''^' ''»""*
nearly blown away j in "« iLiiLnH .r'' ^'' ^^^ be'ng
done by a comrade. But when the m J k T'- """dentall^
o'clock an attemptat a ni^ht a?tlck w. " ^ "'"" "' ^'^^en
of shots came plunging tC,Khthe^ri{^'''^\''"'* »'"''"'«<»«
hattmg such noisy thinifs « thl i^ ^^', '*''«^n« past or
ambulance wagons, stXhek etc ^n^-^'rll^P"'*''' <=-«"
Our guards replied by volley; I fi' ?h disturbing our sleep
came into action, and IK' time 1''"''* °" "^^"^^^ HUl
troubling, and all remained Qu^erLnf "''^"'y '""''^ from
no one within the zariba was Wt '""'"'"«• ' *'«"«ve
thou^Xetttitti^^fr^L^T-^i ■"»- ^'^
Marines, and Artillery, aloMwrft ^^^"de, Australians,
names I did not leamTactmpani'^ bwH 'n*'*"™*' ^^ose
Madras Seppers, and a bodv nf w -^ *''* ^«'"8al Cavaby
fodian Infantry muste^'^'^utite'"' ^k"* '^'«'''"' ^^^
BearerCorapanyhadthehononr^fK ■ ^.^"'^- '^he First
this force. The otherfw^rrr/ft ^ Tf'^^'='"'t<>''<=«>n,pany
outliers. No baggage ofT„yl"criottn^ ^'^ ^"''^ -^ "^
be taken, and we did not foZ sou«r« T "'" P«"ni«ed to
that so fine a force was abWtft ' ^°^ " ""^^ considered
adopting that formation. L ^.W th^f" °^ 1*'^'^ ^^'hout
across the undulating ground whTch wfl^'^'^^y '"^^'"><«1
tation, but was studdfd w^h ^,™ ' ^^"'"'^ "^ ^ny vege-
protruding here and tferrae Z^e^'T "^'""ck basa*t,
^der the tropical sun into sl'llth*L~: a„d"l "If *''^""«
ine heat was so creat th«f if '"*" Bra-vel and rough stones
the hand a stonel^ch te piS'T'^ 5°f •'"' *° h°'d I'n
"» " we marched on for an'^ho^n?;'""^ ""*.'"" ^~«bed
entangled among barren rock^hSk Th"; ^'""'L^ «"''"«%
we had almost ceased to eJ^e„f »"'*•• Then sudden y, when
C^ty • (1 , ,) of Ta^i.*°S ;"oC"*f ^\T' "^" the
finding it a second Suakin #e iT t1"' ^^ ""ticipated
Md wretchedness of Tamai are dffflil.v'' ""*"• barrenness
i» described on Daner h,.f difficult, if not impossible to
^htideaofther'^ • "' ""^ ""^^ "««">?* to^ convey^
Coming over a low rocky crest, we unexpectedly beheld, on
; ,'*'
f I
U :'i
36 REMINISCENCES OF THREE CAMPAIGNS
a flat, somewhat stony expanse beneath, what iieemed to be a
few withered bushes or heaps of grass casually left on the
ground ; but as we drew nzarer and saw more closely, it
became evident that they were wretched booths arranged as
dwellings by human hands, and that we were gazing on what
was really Tamai.
Dismounting, I gave my horse over to Mohammed, took
my pencil, and made a sketch of the place, and while I was
doing so, the column of troops formed into line, and advanced
in a long array to sweep both the village and the hills which
lay around and beyond it, which were now seen to be black
and white with the forms of the enemy. This time they
were evidently not intending to charge us ; of that they had
had enough ; they were to stand on the defensive. The
action commenced and bullets began to fly, so I hastily
finished my drawing, remounted, and pressed on after our
men, into whose ranks single shots and volleys were being
poured, and who were returning the fire as they advanced.
On our part the action was entirely in the open, while the
Arabs had to a large extent the shelter of their rocks and hills,
but their missiles flew mostly too high, while ours told upon
them so severely that they cleared ofi before us, and we passed
through the village and continued to advance beyond it.-
When closely inspected, the village consisted of many
lake-like hollows bottomed with sand, interspersed among
the black rocks, the whole about a quarter of a mile across,
and each hollow containing twelve to forty huts, recently
occupied, with the embers in them hardly cold, and skins
of cattle or bones of oxen, sheep, or goats, freshly picked,
lying about. A description of one of the hollows or lakes
will serve for the others as well. It might have been about
three acres in extent, or sometimes much more, and within
it, scattered irregularly here and there, stood huts constructed
of leafless shrubs, afiording scarcely any shelter from sun or
wet, barely the amount of shelter a withered bush would have
afforded. One of the huts would perhaps appear to be better
than the others, as if a headman lived in it, and would resemble
a beehive or bottle-cover of straw. In the centre of each
group of huts was a circular enclosure of prickly bushes,
stuck in the ground, with a diameter of thirty feet ; in this
fence was an opening, generally on the western side, and in
the middle of the enclosure was arranged a ring, a couple of
yards across, of stones about the size of a loaf of bread, and
many articles were strewn around indicating a hnsty flight,
such as swords, bayonets, scabbards, sandals, camel trappings,
pots of earthenware, ladles and bowls of wood, water skins.
EGYPTIAN WAR
articles of domestic , e, primSn v "J^T* "^^^- i-^V
to the Arabs, such a» heKt, hi i,^"'''u ""'"«'' ^"'"'bte
etc., the only objects bett^.?*' ~'''«"' bottles, headeeaT
wn^wgsanda„rCi„^tS^^« ?''r ^i"« "">« ffi
Our long line of armed men^n/ S^T.u^ *•"= ^°"'"-
sweepmgfartor,ghtardlef?^'?irf^.*'^"8h the village,
"lound. Along „1th X «ttle' f ? '^''^^"' 'he hUh
to hill, concentrated occa^i^nH ^ !^'"^ "^'"t "« from hiH
repeated against some ,^t defenSJf *°I°"*y* ^""^ »d
Such resistance as was met wkh rf^ "'V ""J"'"''' obstinacy
nor was the loss caused by Tt iUl^ ?"' '^""J' °"' «lv«n«^
flew over our heads anrstr^ck t&.fnH t°K- ^^ *''« ''""«t^
advance I did not see a s™Sl P».f?* "^ '^'""^ "*• In this
our men .swept on. Z^^X ^'J^tVl^'' ^*« » '"-e
as we approached the wells LI? , T^l^' "'"' Presently,
some of our soldiers began t;>dL "^'%'?f:y°"d the villagl
my bearer company so I fnn„. ^x.. ^^ *••" time I had lost
assisting the wound^l^s onni J*^-.*'''' "^P' nearest to mc
<»me to the edge of a preSr""".'^ °*"«^' ""^ shortly we
the -bUtck ho^ibll ^SZrS ir T^nT'^" '^^"^ ■""
tXtw^urt^rilt'^-^lef^^^^
eve^he.^ preci^toZJ^^'^^:J'^ v*^ waii., nea^
Its bed was simply a river^W.? u-. ^ '^ ^V '^e action
lower end was there an v » f '^'"'^ «"«J' and only at i?s
muddy fluid, tasthg oTsaTaL" ""J"" ^U'" pool oVdark
th'rsty horses. AloL t^ ^ "ndnnkable, even by o..r
hidden f^msight'^thT^lXter^S' "f "" '-'''lidZ
down on the gorge on our m.n as t W T^ H'"* "" ^°' fi«
f«ht, crossed itatsomeof the pWswhLJr'"^ round to the
and hnmg the cliffs, advanidT'^ T*'?'''^«*P'''<=ticable,
f " Jf "'mpanies in the riy„ of ^sTnJ^Lf °"8 '*' ^'^^ thei;
anothsr sketch here T litJ • "" below. After takino
Ponied the soldier^loVg'r'^ttr'^^/""" «"«» ~
l^y up It, but fewer and fewer of th^- ^^^^ advanced some
thetf firing fejj andTt 'ou H ^T'l^^'^^ to be found,
men needlessly to ^JZe We w."^'^ ^^ 5^usted the
-. - balls-re XZ^^, TtL^J^-,::^^ ^^
I It
,': H
38 REMINISCENCES OF THREE CAMPAIGNS
seemed to oome, but cannon and rifle alike flattened their
miuUea against the black rocks, and no advantase was per-
ceptible.
Two of the Australian soMiers were wounded here, to their
own delight and the envy of their comrades, and both of them,
by good fortune, only slightly.
After resting for an hour or two the troops were withdrawn,
and as they returned to the village there were some renewed
outbursts of firing, and many individual shots, following us
and flattening themselves for the most part against the rocks,
pve rise to a few more casualties, without our being able to
locate their origin. Some shells fh)m our gum, however, put
an end to this annoyance, and we had no further trouble.
When we were returning through the village, the huts were
set Are to, and the plain became thick with clouds, columns,
and whirlwinds of dense black smoke from masses of swirling
flames below, while the s' -. crackling explosions from stores
of ammunition hidden away in their walls ai.d roofs, or buried
underneath them, broke out as the huts were quickly con-
sumed.
The battle of Tamai was at an end
We went quietly back to the zariba, which •- found like a
swarm of bees. Word had been sent on to ;t, i r, J those who
had remained there were busy packing up to return to Suakin.
I gave my help in arranging the sick and wounded, furnished
each of them with a drink of iced water and a lump of ice in
his handkerchief, then climbed the Teselah Hill and watched
the camp preparing to move. It was like a Derby Day.
The plain was filled with a motley crowd of tents, canvas-
covered ambulance wagons, field hospitals flying the red cross,
piles of boxes and bags, rows of camels and horses, soldiers in
their khaki suits, marines in grey serge, sailors in blue suits
round their Gardner guns with white canvas covers, Arabs in
white clothes, Sikhs with blue turbans and long lances, Hindoo
doolie bearers with their black legs, field guns and their
carriages, wagons, a mountain battery of small cannon in
pieces on mules' backs, and the favourite regimental dogs or
goats trotting happily about the men here and there. The
noise and babble and shouting, the English profanity, the
Hindoo cackle, and the hoarse roars of the Gibraltar mule
drivers, mingled now and then with the bugle calls, sent up
to heaven a noise that sounded weird in that otherwise silent
land, under its tranquil heavens and among its now peaceful
hill tops.
At one o'clock the advance sounded, and we departed,
leaving Tamai to its normal desolation. We marched slowly
'I
■'HK (iokliii UK lAMA
t!i
if
I) ' •
I
bMk
■t Ul
we it
tumi
with
■cem(
when
•nd t
been
evert
suboi
tniei
decidi
and t<
WMb
half 1;
unloa<
way.
and al
tea, b
and ti
men, (
Ha^
drink,
andai
We fo
circle (
the an
itowini
themo
Vfey
that w
so, he&
posed t
serve a
post Wl
stiilwar
horse ;
beyond
the hasi
despite
and the
and wel
fired du
probabl
EGYPTIAN WAR „
«^ Ki. .^ » ^^ir**" '^ "''''"> on to Su«kin •lone
tubordinatei m oomiMnd, loon began to diipUy t^Llv«
m laying the ch«.f in which we had been iSt lCm7„
t^. u'^ ^'^' *° '" *"" •" '>°"' a «»ribB of thorn bushn
u^LTf '""" *»^ baggage, water mule,, and wagon, were
«r^a™ fl^'" ~",^^ distributed in a rougHut fa"
way. Camp flrei were ht, kettles put on, and cotfee made ■
^ b^L"" ^ « ,r "•=•' °' '•>« ^"""d^ a supptyoJtef :
tea bread, and milk, we sat down to our dinner of St
and tmned meat in the dusk. It was to hJa.^a .""*"'*
men, a very good meal and ^uj Tn^y^.'"^ """ """^
drSj''^.r!5iY ^' c""""*^ ^'^ something to eat and
We we^'aSr» dS^ '^Z^ ^"C^^" "'*•''" *« «"«='°»""e
th.7 J!^ w ^? .""' begnmed from our day's marchinir
^h^ IM ri.*^« ?f J3l»8 down on the Vou"d t^'
J^"s^e,^l^ ' ^,j;^J^^ » » box, officers and men dU^
serve as a pillow, and so we passed the night. My own bed-
P°"* ':"/ '«8on wheel, and beneath the waZ, Ty tihe
sWwart form of Mohammed. whUe beyond hXstoS my
horse; and outside the wagons slept a roTof s^im^
Khi'^J^'" ^«« theTntries and the cut bush^^f
the hastily extemporised zariba. I fancy no one slept much
aK,*S^";?**";' ''"* '°°'* ^y watcSiig the Lto h^^et;
!^!^^,!:?'**«n C"". thinking over the events of th^day!
tofj^f2^.r^ to be there in a whole skin. Two shots were
fi»d during the night, but they came trom our own men «id
probably were needless, for the enemy m^U^oTtiaA
^ Vn
II :
'I
1
i. t
' '.'- ■
>
t ' i
m
40 REMINISCENCES OF THREE CAMPAIGNS
Some mules broke loose and a squad of them charged across,
kicking and trampling us where we Jay, but every disturbance
passed, and possibly we dozed a little, now and then, until
the bugles blew the r^veill^ at live.
From M'Neill's zariba we set off for Suakin at seven, in
square as before, but soon there was a halt of two hours in the
sun, while some reserve ammunition which had been forgotten
was sent back for, and the opportunity of having a look about
me at the cotmtry was irresistible. So I left the square and
its dust and spent some time in exploring the flora and fauna
of the land. There was, however, little new to be seen ; the
ground was covered with hundreds of Arabs lying dead and
rotting under the bushes everywhere, and the country was
strewn with biscuit boxes, water barrels, pack saddles, bales
of forage, etc., from the actions which had taken place.
The square was again slowly moving on when I returned, and
after accompanying it to within four miles of Suakin, I sent
Mohammed back into it, and rode quickly on alone, no one
disturbing me, and got to the camp at noon, dreadfully
tired, and thankful to be back among the comforts of the
base hospital.
IX
Hospital Wokk at Suakin
Afteb the battle of Tamai, Dr. Bamett attached me per-
manently to the base hospital at the ' H ' Redoubt, and
there I remained during the rest of my stay in the Soudan.
I had scarcely seen the town of Suakin since my first
arrival there, and was surprised to find it much changed for
the better in the interval. The advent of the army had
awakened the place from its secular lethargy, and the British
administration had improved its sanitation and even lent
the town a touch of the modem and occidental. The streets
were cleaner than they used to be, more quays had been con-
structed, and the quantity of shipping in the harbour had
become quite considerable. The line-head for Berber started
from the shore, and small locomotives were transporting small
loaded trucks with water, provisions, and materials for the
labourers on the desert end of the railway. Where formerly
nothing was to be bought, there were now good stores kept
by Greek merchants who had arrived, and many delicacies
could be purchased in them. Some one had even opened a
restaurant in which an excellent dinner could be obtained ;
and in the markets fresh fruits, fish, and vegetables were on
sale. The city was becoming really a nice place. After the
EGYPTIAN WAR ^,
coUection of miseiible booths which in the desert went h«
observing the attentions they reSfv^ anHn <?,r''- '"
«.e„ distribution to the tents^r?he t se hospi Jft'^tSf
KflT^°:^' '^^ the Go«««. It would not^^Xwe 'or
me to tad words in which to express the kindness att«>H^^
and assistance with which eve^ one of iSe offi;*,^„f fu '
e\™^"in ''Z^"^' and'^aj'thl' of te^na^J t
fnT^t ^ Everything was shown to me ; every wi^ for
3,1 »v '"^°™?';°" *«s gn«tified without re^rl to the
^tr^^rtoVnl^nd-^l,-'^^^^^
tr:-td^^aJd\%-x-H^rpSS^^^^^
S^r^h.^ns^d?£a=
It was also my good fortune, while at the base at Suntin
to observe the operations of the National AM &>cietv for nn'
sHould be un^": ^L^r^^^Sbl^l^fe^t^t/lfSr
til'.
H
'4, •!
.1 j.t'
4a REMINISCENCES OF THREE CAMPAIGNS
nation, and the profession, who should be aided by a council
composed of officers of the services ; and an equal number of
civilian experts of the highest standing possessing rank, pay,
and authority equal to the service officers, theb colleajJuS
so as to ensure their status and give weight to their opSons.
1 atoo conduded that it was quite necessary that the officers
or the medical services should have military rank like the
other branches (a thing which has since been conceded):
and that as a matter of course the medical services ought to
be kept complete and perfect in every point, with their own
transport and appliances, and all this in peace as weU as in
war.
As regarded the National Aid Society, it seemed to me.
If Its work were to be fuUy carried out, that it also
ought to come under the same parliamentary chief as, and
through hun operate hand in hand with, the medical services,
tnus dunmishmg jealousies and ensuring proper supervision
proper responsibility, and proper continuity of policy. Mv
views were possibly Utopian, at any rate they wert such as
could not well be urged until the times were ripening for them,
but I had Uttle doubt but that they must eventuaUy prevaU •
and one of the results of the experience I gained at Suakin
was a resolution which I formed that, if it should ever Ue in
my power, I should strive to advocate such improvements of
the services as might lie in the directions I have just indi-
cated, without regard to the odium which is the sure portion
ot every one who ventures to suggest reforms in the War
I
Inlll
'i)'. i; .■]
I i
yl
U
n '\
ii: ' ■
KsnI^."
PART SECOND
SOUTH AFRICAN WAR
X
Thi Pobtsmoutr Addbess
a suitable opportunity Zm^ ^" ^"^ '^^^ •>«&«
officers, an3 so acquired a toU«hi„ ^"? ?""y ""^'"l
the conditions ofXiTseAn^ t ^ '"='="™?« k'-o^'Mge of
ments of the mediral se^/^n r .V^'*"'*'**' *•>« «"»»««-
withrecomme"dSs1^r£^%^to"^r^- ^"^
to compare these Hth our BHH.k Victoria, 1 was enabled
of the tetding Engl sh militaJl h '^^'^'' ^^ ^^'*^« «»»«
medical institutions and ^^^.T^''- '?'"' "^ *•"= ""val
our navy. With her ^nrZ. 'J^^^^- °^ **'^ ™"»Wps of
ambass^oratS?.Pete«d'«'}^ an mtr^luction to'^our
from Count Mouravfeff Sini f *'°* ^"u"""'"' "''*»««'
to inspect, and mide the^~. " !° "'' whatever I wanted
patkinVnd Dr sZTert th.T""*"1^u°^ ^"'="'' K°"™-
Sive Director-cienemT'ff the ^''7..«""«'>**"«i «nd progres-
ment. The Russian mJlif.Jf «"''»■?" army medical depart-
and the '^y2^LrZ7f.^^''X:^^f^r}' *'""^-
dressmgs, and appliances fnr ««^' *"^ mstruments,
were biing arran^Trn the mn^ T"^ Zf"" P^eP""^- and
manner for thWsth^ed e^nl '"'"V"":^ ""d practicable
Naval Inspector DrKo^ri^'^^'"u"*- ^= ^hief Russian
me to visitXsS; o^wl^vin?' ^'''" "i""*"" *» P«"»it
all dismantled foX wX^^ ■" ^"^'"dt. as they were
^ Surgery at the ^"rri^Xg^lf tt^h ^S
ml
II
;v^l-.Si
f
44 REMINISCENCES OF THREE CAMPAIGNS
Asiociation, held in Portamouth in 1890, it seemed fitting
to devote it to a discussion of the subject.
Though many improvements had been introduced into the
services in the fourteen years which had passed since my
Soudan e]n)erience8, they had yet fallen far short of those
which ought to have been effected, and I felt that I was
justified in making use of the occasion to speak very plainly.
The following extracts from my address will show the purport
of what I then said : —
' The destitution of the army and navy of institutions where
surgery can be practised is very great. Netley Hospital, limited
as it is to the treatment o( soldiers, and Haslar to that it sailors,
do not offer such varied material as is required by surgeons and
physicians to cultivate the piactical blanches of their art. And
there is an almost total absence of hospitals and lazarettoes
throughout the stations where medical officers are serving, of a
kind fitted to afford them any of the facilities they have a right
to expect. The provision of places of study and practice is im-
peratively called for, where the younger and middle-aged officers,
provided with all the appliances found in civil institutions and
with every class of patients on whom they may be used, may fit
themselves for the duties of attending the wounded during action
or in field or base hospitals.
' Had custom not dimmed our eyes, the position of matters in
the army and navy would ere now have excited indignant surprise.
While the calk of modem science have been heard in the surgery
and medicine of civil life, and effected the changes to whidi I
have alluded ; and while they have been taken to heart in the
medical services of foreign armies and navies, they have fallen
on unheeding ears among those responsible for the efficiency of
our own. The contrast between the medical and other depart-
ments makes the matter more astonishing. Such scientific corps
as, for instance, artillery, engineering, and telegraphy, have
undergone extensive improvements and reforms in the last few
decades. No means of enhancing their efficiency is neglected.
For them all the inventions of modem science are studied, ulopted
and improved. Elaborate care is taken that every one whose
duties in war-time will necessitate his familiarity with appliances
or knowledge of any kind is trained in them, so that when the
call of war is heard perfect efficiency shall have been attained.
The hves of the officers and men of the Navy, of the Royal
Engineers and Artillery, of the cavalry and infantry, ate devoted
to the daily acquirement of a knowledge and familiarity with
what they must use in war, attainable only by constant practice
under conditions resembUng as nearly as may be those of a real
campaign. Tactics are studied, manoeuvres held, officers and
men practised and drilled, fleets and bodies of men are put in
motion, and any unreadiness is observed and remedied. Yet the
Royal Army Medical Corps and the Naval medical service, which
SOUTH AFRICAN WAR 45
t^^ Z7 "^S^" *°d mo» v«ied culture, « mo«. profound
a^7e??*I'nn^«"!,'"" '*'«~'.°' P~«« •"'1 "PoHeSce than
f^ll!.^ ij j"°?u*'' "'y y™" *8°' «••'» rough and ready
wlSSTk ^Jf Vk"'* ""gh ^d """y work then'requiS.^ but
mXi-„ ' ""Piony with the revoluUoniMd condiUoM of
«d^ n"^77C3 ^V'^" °^ *^' """"i^ .ervicc. rf Se aH^
S. ^» J ■ ™'''t»ry Powers. Even the care that has
hTl^i^*-"^ °",^* '»'=™loP«'»t of ambulance ^ only Lmh
m wounded men bemg now brought, on the best suJcalTrin
aples, to surgeons as unBt to treit them as it is Dos^We for a
h^^ th"». supiH^mg that their ofBcen, "after acquiring t^
i^™i« '^n -"Hi'"" ""• ^^"^ «»"«'«<»' 'hit nSfita^
bTd^i^.Tl?.-!,"'' """• °". "btaiuing their commissions, to
te;:^ih"::2t?'-:5s r'e^^Lti^'rsi,-^ z±i
Hons, weapons, and manouvres t£at war wTroi^l^^f^S^
:S'?mJ:*^%''*"^""y "''1^'* a«.u,e'Siv:"al^erisTon,'^L*en?o.^
wnat we wi. ess m the medical services, where the problems dea't
wtb are even more sdentiflc and recondite, and in S^Sit
practiMl apphcabon is even more necessary instant
.11 .fl^^fT" »y''^"> has had a sufficient trial.'and, in spite of
^iin»TP5.'°J"fl°'^ '*! ^ y^'^^ unsadsfactoiir r«ults, mdnry
^^\^A k" '^'^!"^r. ^^'^^- The Royal Army MeS
Corps tuid Navy medical department, indeed, are at present «dst-
mg under impossible conditions ; they cannot be subjS o s"ch
nnpediments without their effects being felt in a himdr«l wa«
raHnn 1« i P"'.??""' the same privileges of professional oc^-
M.Hn^ their civil confrira,. and are seSsible that they arTnot
equipped as they ought to be in following out the inteUectuS
problems to which they have dedicated their Uves IWs "m^
oeived not only by themselves but by othe«, e^ally byfhe
other scientiBc branches, and naturally they do'not enjoy the
3ame appreciative esteem as is accorfed to department^^^Lged
m the constant healthful exeidse of all their due acHvi*TSd
possessmg the intemiU vitality and self-respect i^Sg from
SZ^T"" '" fr ^'ihi'^Tting ^ of intellectua?prog^
which forms the ve^y hfe of the leading professions in the worM^s
i«Xt h«°7; ^^ " '*^-5' "»• ^' ">e sa^e ca^:^^^
lies what has often been complained of, namely the cold reDarf
psrf by th. naval and militar/authoriti^s Tthe m^iS seS
in Jh^^'PP'*'"''"'"? °' **"• *« ™y i° which theyTre sS^^-
Lm^ ^^'"'^ requirements, and the fashion in which^eU
etercise and traimng during peace are overlooked and neglect
IVy would seem to be considered as less deserving of devd^:
mat than even such department, as the commissarilt and ImX
port-the contemptuous belief being apparently held that tS
^1
n
i) •:•
:IJ
i; ? I
1: ;
'Mi'., li
.; , ill 11'"
h]
46 REMINISCENCES OF THREE CAMPAIGNS
•urgeon* can be summoned into the Held at a momi-nt'i nutioe
by the expenditure ot lo much money, like the hor«r<i, mulet, and
csmrls that an anny requires. ... j. , •
' Let me give an example of how the army medical •ervice
worked in an expedition ol lomc eleven thouiand men, lent under
Sir Gerald Graham to the Extern Soudan, and landed on the Red
Sea littoral in 1888. Following aa it did on the death of Gordon at
Khartoum, when the country waa rouaed into excitement, many
millions were spent upon it, and it was fu jhed with everything,
even to hospital ihipa, at profuse expense, nothing being wanting
to it» medical department that money could procure and nre
provide Vet in the bearer companies the men were from Alder-
shot, the carta and hameas from Woolwich, the mules and muleteers
from Spain, the doolie* and doolie bearers from India, arid
camels and camel driven from Aden. The wagons arrivnl m
one ship, the harness in another, the mules in a third, and ^
at different times. When the ambulance wagons were landed,
along with several carU, the pieces were mixed up, and the men
had to fit them tcjether as best they could. When the mules
and harness turned up, it was found that, while the wagons were
made for one kind of draught, the harness was made for another,
and so on. And the officers, non-commissioned offlcen and men
knew nothing of one another.
' For the medical part of the expedition generally, the stores
came without storekeepers, and without proper outward indica-
tion of wiiat the packagea contained. Chaos reigned, and I Mn
assured that if there had been an engagement on the day the
forces landed, there would not have been a bandage forthcoming
for the wounded. And very much the same state of matters
exists in the service to-day. . . • , „ , , ,...,«
' So complex an organisation as the Royal Army Medical Corps
ought to be kept in a state of high efficiency, and be vitalised by
continual practice. It ou^t to consist of separate units, each
complete in itself and familiar with its e<^uipment and work.
Bach field hospital should be completely furnished and frequently
practised in its duties. Every corps should be ready to act, as in
other departmenU, the moment it takes the field, and not have
to learn its duties there when the day of trial comes in a cam-
paign. Whether stationed at home or abroad, the officers should
be provided with all the proper means of keeping themselves in-
formed regarding the advances that are for ever beinp introduced
into their sciences. The literature bearing on every r v progress
should be supplied to them at remote stations where scientific
periodicals and books are not found ; for no medical officer can,
from his pay, purehase and transport a Ubrary ot the newest
medical works, even if he were aware, which he often cannot be,
of what he ought to procure. ...
' In the department of the navy ... as in the army, the
fundamental error is perpetuated of adhering to a system whereby
its officers, shut out from practising their profession as civil
surgeons have to do, fall year by year more out of touch with the
SOUTH AFRICAN WAR ^^
^r.^.,S^ 2 ""u*' •™n««ment. thmt seem ddibenteN
rf^v^J!^?. u J'T^ ""°2«'' *" •Women, the only chj^
™ wL^„ l»P«n>tomy perfonned within twelve hours ; but
«rf^n- °'i.°' ^" M'Je'ty'' fleet U there any poMiWl tv ot
£^^^1 " "P*'?""" '■ ^" » ""ther aLSSSodaUon
insuumenti, nor accessories. . . . •^.v<u«uuu,
•..If*"*" *" *^*°, *""'* "" '><»«l "he smaller vessels which
T.^ » J "!.-°° ?>*'«"'»'» 'or making spUnts, onlv a box
to tt^ G ^ pI • *' »a.hng.master acts as doctor. . . .
^~L '!3 -PP"* '"""y '"'*<»' m»n who has served
possesses jied nuhtary rank, even if engaged in civil DiacHa
;»^ • °' '^'T;*^ '" ">« «8^a' army, but are in^rivate
wa. Office, as to whefter they are preparad to serve their Father-
rL^ ° T- *=Y'''y.Ge™-S medicJ man who hL seri^
nX! ^V' *S " """""oed 'or nineteen years under miUta™
Ume oi ^l"- ^v P°'«^.''6x^ rank, and is allot?ed,"ven ^
rbteut'&TiiieSsir^.^^^^^^^^
Mikulicz have to teach these classes during the Easter hoUdam
Um"e°r5ti« '°^1r„:^,"' the m„tor and simmer re^foSsolTe
hTiTl™ . * Pro'e^or has his fixed mihtaiy rank assigned
to him m case of war ; most of them rank as iieute^t-oen^
some a, generaU. and even higher; «,d in Se ™^' ^'5fe
act as consulting surgeons to the medical officers of tte .r^jT^
' i J j j .' ' i
48 REMINISCENCES OF THREE CAMPAIGNS
the fleU or Imuc boapiUl*. They Roeive the Mine pay u the
miUtary aurgron*, w do aliio the other luroruiu who an liable
to be called out in caM of war ; tome of the latter have plaoei
anignrd to them in the SaniUry Curpi, etc., so that their akill
and experience arc utiliaed in cveiy department of the lerviee. . . .
' All lurgioal initiumenti and appUaneei in the Qcrman army
are provided by the SUte, and in the navy thi> it likewi»e the
caw ; ev<!ry hoipitiU in which the medical oiBccn Krve hai iti
complete- armamentarium provided for it, so that no unwiie
economy hampera the moat thorough and modem practice of the
healing art ; and the uune thing ii true in icgard to the naval
medical nervice.
' In the Ruuian army and navy aimilar care is taken ot the pro-
icHional culture of the medical offioen. Russia poueuc* tix
large and three hundred iimall honpitab connected with the army,
besidn smaller laxarrttoes : and in some of theae the equipment
is far in odvanci; of anything the services posteaa in thia oounlry
Thus the military hospital of St. Petersburg, wherein are treat, a
all medical, surgical, gynaecological, ophthalmic, and other diacaaes,
conaisis of Ave sepaiiitr clinics or mflrmariea, each of which ia
complete in itself and possesses dcpnrtmenta for every dasa of
disease, and even wards for nuying pati'-nts. The wards are
excellent and replete with appliances of t.cry kiiul i tliere are
bandage rooms, purifying rooms, operation theatres, bacterio-
logical departmente, rooms fo. phvei -;J leaearch, laboratories for
teachers, and labonttories for iti.jwnts, all excellent and com-
plete. Kach clinic possesses 8'h" iieds. . . . And about 45,000
patients are treated per annum. . . . Russia has 8000 surgeons
in her armv, and any of these may, if he show ability and powers
of work, appl v for and bt' ordered to return to study in the hospitals
for a period of two year ^ . . . The Russian naval hospitals are
arranged like their army hospitals. . . .
' In the French army post-graduate courses, expressly for
medical officers, are conducted by professon at the different
Universities throughout the republic, and the cost is borne by the
army medical department, while a certain number of the medical
officers of the active and reserve army are every year ordered to
attend them, extra pay being drawr. by those who do so.'
These extracts are perhaps somewhat lengthy for a non-
medical reader, but they are necessary to show the lines on
which my address was planned. They constituted a heavy
indictment of the system on which our services were then
conducted. None of my facts were ever challenged ; I was
prepared indeed to prove every one of them.
The address concluded by offering suggestions for the
amelioration of the services. The suggestions made were
moderate and reasonable, as is shown by the fact that
some of them have since been brought into effect, and they
were limited to such as suited the time. Had the address
SOUTH AFRICAN WAR
XWn Vh.^S'.i!:^^^'^'""- "-> -«"- -V. been ^
once agreed to do ^ ""' '""°"'' "Wch I at
The Bi^ck Wuk
doctjo^tou,. ^mu^ aut£^^^x--''irits!;s-
• Mv n B. W'"""* CA*ri., Aowwi^ t4tt, t8g().
'or the purpr « of .bldJin/mnii ° °' '?'""'« SouthVifrica,
' Ahthuh Bigqe.'
in South Africa, l^tl^"!^„t J"^ **" "••'rt«V authorities
«aymg that suih imJ^l^iS t'^ere^oul^"""""""" '"
came from the head oTh^ . ™, ^" placed m my way
While this WM so and wMu HT ""^"f" ' 1? I»rtment there^
of the milit Jy K I f~rii,^r "'*r^""«' ^^ behaviour
' HI
i 1 • ^ I
so REMINISCENCES OF THREE CAMPAIGNS
subordinate officers of the army medical service, with the
exception of a very few who sided with the party which
believed itself wrongly assailed in my Portsmouth address.
Still the result was that I did not see so much in some direc-
tions as I had hoped, and had reason to congratulate myself
on having gone out on my own charges and responsibihty,
without having asked for the countenance of the then Director-
General, for I fancy, had I done the latter, my opportunities
might have been even fewer. As the event proved, and as good
fortune would have it, I obtained the most valuable insight
into matters which I might have entirely missed had I been
able to carry out my original intentions.
Having forecasted that there would be a long-drawn-out
war, though not so long as proved to be the case, I had not
intended to go out until the beginning of 1900, but the events
which happened in Africa hastened my decision. Calamity
followed calamity there. The inability of General Buller
to cross the Tugela River and relieve the besieged Lady-
smith, the serious defeat of General Gatacre at Stormberg,
and the &ilure of General Lord Methuen to force his way
beyond the Modder River and set Kimberley free from its
besiegers, all of which events were attended with heavy
losses, had brought Britain to a serious sense of the task
which lay before it ; and it was during what was called in
London ' The Black Week,' on the 6th of December 1899,
that I completed my arrangements and started for the seat
of war on board the Union Line steamer Mexican, which was
proceeding direct from Southampton to Cape Town.
That week I found London indeed in a serious mood ;
gloomy apprehensions for the future were deeply impressed
on every one, and I saw the railway terminus fill^ with
drawn &ces and anxious eyes as the trains moved out with
the troops and others leaving for AfHca.
xn
To THE Cape
I RAD made the voyage to the Cape once before, among
the usual crowd of tourists, groups of speculators whose dress,
gesture, and speech spoke of diamond fields or gold mines,
invalids going out to Madeira, and bar-haunting sots sent
from home in the hope that the sea voyage would work
amelioration or perhaps bring about the end. But now,
beyond a couple of convalescents for Funchal, and a pair
of Dutch families retiuning from their European tour, every-
SOUTH AFRICAN WAR
thing was for the war n... — ^'
stores, and aoceS fo^^h?^"" 'Z?"'** ''^ -""y
OUT passengers the soTs of the R^i '"l"*^ department ;
where to rush into the &;hHn„ "Pu""' 8»**"ed from every
^Ucdforormadeweit^^'^,""^ «ven ^fo« they w%
the bar was neglected for snorts IS ~"^ ^^^ """J ™"0^.
keep men fit, Md th«V L!^ ° "erases which would
between tet! ^Lt^^"^" ^f^ 'T""* ''""^^^^
have foreseen the different f^ "^'f^s cabms. Could one
fellows, it would have sSde,^^^ ^h«:h awaited these toe
would have drawn iZ^ '^ "' ""' *"" ^ think no man
P^of'^X^t^-'SZlr^'tl^'^ ^o-^hire.
Highland regimTnt^n hi» „ T^ enhsted as a boy in a
«d efBd«i^to a'^^^s^n'^^^t*^" '"^ "^ "^ "^-"'^
the Chartered ComDanvth. n^r '"**?« ""ny to manaire for
was ahnost enteS'^*fu?^«"* *^" ^'«Ws in HSXi^'
Matabele War ffi L^'^tfo™^'*?^"' "^^ ^^^^
others mto a fighting force Witt wwTh^ his workmen and
eampaign in the MatopDoffiH,^„^'^''"t« brilliant
most against thousandf a^'wr^M ° !""«J«d ™t
St Ata»«.S-^"^ --o.:-^'
the colonel in oljSn^d of ^rd RnL!^*;''^^'''^ «PPomtaJ
veiy brave man and a W^m^H^,^' ^odygu^. a
selves in training. Thev h«d W u^"v"*^'' •» keep th^^
them, and hop^ to get ™-^"«''*. *'^ ^^ alo^^h
mojmted coTnhich*te«T2'°Srt'>,°'r''''' ^^J"'
within a few months one of S wh!fi i ^* ^=P*- ^las I
gettmg a commission i^ Tho^vcmft^J""* succeeded in
was shot on the very momie SSTn th ^^"^^ ^^ntry
Ifop on the TugelTwhile anotRiS S'/J^"?^ °'Spio„
about the same time ; and onlv «f» i-^-j ?y?«ntery in Natal
survived the war. Fran! S^^ 1'''" -Musketeei?.
suffering ftom rheumatism of hT. ^ ^^ *«° J he was
was'spinaldisease.-bur.S'ul^^i'^JI^.-^^^^^wa^^ld
f.e^
r, ■'•}
:iMfj
f
1(1: ■
ja REMINISCENCES OF THREE CAMPAIGNS
the war, to share afterwards in the Hons battles, where
he won undying fame and gained the Victoria Cross, and
was killed shortly thereafter.
Among the English was also B , traveller, sportsman,
and athlete, who had left his young wife in order to take his
share in England's battles ; more than all others, he was the
life of the party on board.
Hany other English were there, often in the second or third
cabins, of all ages ftom nineteen upwards, engineers, artisans,
and even officers, one of a mounted and another of an infantry
regiment, all burning to take a part in the work which they
had failed to obtain at home. Men from the Colonies were
there as well— glorious material for the irregular mounted
infantry. But— and sure it was a thing unique where fighting
was in prospect — only a single Irishman, or at least but one
with an Irish name, was among the passengers going to the war.
The neutral or perhaps even hostile side, however, were
represented by a couple of young American reporters with their
wives, and the Hon. Mr. Webster Davis, Assistant Secretary
to the Minister of the Interior of the United States, all of
whom were on their way to join the Boers at Delagoa Bay.
They kept themselves much in the backgroimd, but all felt
that an atmosphere of suspicion and dislike of Britain was
perceptible in their neighbourhood ; and no one liked their
pretence of having no connection with one another, which was
carried too far to be genuine.
ad the old Metican been a sentient thing, she woukl have
been herself surprised on this voyage to find that the usual
bar-swilling and euchre-gambling, as well as gambling of other
sorts, was superseded by shooting at marks, athletic exercises,
tugs of war and strong manly games, instruction in mounted
infantry drill, and an almost universal abstinence tcota
alcohol.
None of the liners whom we met on our way to the Canaries
responded to our signalling for news. We were eager to learn
what had happened in Afnca, and hoped to be cheered by the
latest reports, but were left in ignorance until we had reached
and anchored at Madeira, where some of the passengers had
wires of the home news, and as their contents spread men
looked in their neighbours' faces and spoke softly. Another
reverse for BuUer on the Tugela— over 80 killed, 600 wounded,
and 800 missing 1 and who might not be on those lists ? for
naturally we had no details. Lord Roberts appointed
Commander-in-Chief of the Forces in South Africa, with
Kitchener his Chief of the Staff! And the Militia and
Volimteers called out! What serious anxiety and grim
SOUTH AFRICAN WAR
53
rwoluUon, It seemed to us, must be pervading the old country
Md Its Government at home, when it had rome to^such S^
to have b«en sup«seded ; but Lord Roberts's appoinrmenj
had the approval of the military men whom we hJd^^rthTs
M"
XIII
Cape Town
forces under General Buller. But his repulsed onThixSella
p«IT- ^ ^^^^ therefore was to remain there until
S r"^"^' ^"^ ^P^^ by his movements
r^J^^n'lf ""/l?"^' ^'''' -""1^™ additionsUund
It. me (general and his secretary received m.. wirt. Z..u
courtesy, and gave me such^S.^^'^fs ThJ'l^
fh.f ^J"'?^'^ =""* P^bable future of thfww ^
U.ey agreed with me that I ought on no account t^^'on to
of the land When we had left London, thefe was Mubitably
T^TV^^J^t' '^^ «^1'"i«ht prove too st^^t^^l
?h. ^ ?■ ^"^ *'™^' ^""^ *•"' disasters might multinlv in
sL^Th ■ °"*''" ^?f ""* «'^" informed^abortSS
strength and resources. But at the Cape, where these w^^
known to most there was quiet confidence tkuhere was r^U^
^Grwt Bntam, which was familiarly known to nearly ever;
one. TJ« Dutch population of oou«e sympathised not a uSte
III
( ■ 1
. M if
54 REMINISCENCES OF THREE CAMPAIGNS
with their feUow-countrymen ; this could not be otherwise,
for many of them, such as my friend T)r. I , who had just
had his brother killed fighting in thr Transvaal ranks, had
their blood relations in arms against us. But their sjrmpathy
was most unlikely to resolve itself into hostile deeds, for well
they knew the advantages of British rule, and they would not
willingly have exchanged it for that of the Transvaalers and
the ignorant old-world Dutch farmers from the back districts.
A few of the fiery young men would and did steal off to join
the Boer forces, but the vast majority were not only not hostile
but were even favourable to the British. In my journeys
through the remoter parts of Cape Colony which were to come
later, I was almost always received with hospitality and kind-
ness by the Dutch settlers, but even trom the day of my
arrival in Cape Town, I had reason to conclude that there was
no imminent danger of a general rising of the Dutch population
against the British rule. Among those Africanders who could
hardly be termed British, though sympathy with the Boers
undeniably existed, loyalty to Britain held the upper hand.
My cousin was an instance of this. He was a native of the
country, had before the war to some extent become a pro-
fessed Dutch sympathiser, and joined the Dutch Ministry in
the Cape Parluiment ; he was now suspected and misrepre-
sented in the newspapers ; but my many conversations with
hiiri convinced me that Ls was a loyal and conscientious man
who, in a difficult position, was striving, while remaining a
friend of Schreiner and other Dutchmen who had also no
intention of becoming opponents of England, to do his duty
to Britain.
The Cape Dutchmen, however, were not scrupulous about
conveying messages and information to those in the Transvaal
and Orange Free State, and so much of this went on that Boer
prisoners had to be isolated and sent, some to St. Helena
and others on board ship in Simon's Bay, and while there
visitors and correspondence were permitted only under very
strict precautions.
The attitude of men such as Solomon and Schreiner, and
even of the Dutch sympathisers, was understood and respected
by the British authorities, but the latter was not the case with
some others who wished to stand well with both sides, while
committing themselves to neither, such as Sir J S ,
who astutely offered his houise and estate to England as a
hospital for convalescents, and equipped and sent out an
ambulance to the Boers. His offer of the house was refused ;
but the ambulance came out, and along with it two loyal
Scots, for whom much sympathy was felt, and who were
SOUTH AFRICAN WAR 55
that time allowed to go towIrfsTh^i^.^ no nurses were at
own department.' That volunte^ ^m •?T*fu'"* ""**
everywhw outside Britain fcX^Kf ^'""*' ** ''"'^
in WM, and one tolE ™«r^ '^j^" pepressible force
hardly find any outTet olw '^ ""^ "*"^' """'d here
withthes%t"tleof .TeafforTl" " '^'°V'^^« ^'^'
benevolences. Tommies and other minor
su^";u'^^nr' H op^Smi:."""^ *•"" ^"p«'«'^"y -*»
miperltive for me SclE^T^I!!f °°*.*°^ ^'^' ** ''»'»
probabilities of thefotSe and^kf th""7*^' *° *?"«" *•"=
Natal, where militar^^ekts we^ „ ^'""l ^*" ^l^"
occurred, or were liSly to Elpp^r ^="™«' ^'^ "''^""y
, I ■
1* II
u =
XIV
The MiuTAKY Situation
J^^sTt^rrSus'Vnel' T '°T^'»"'<^ »'*-<='^
port of Dirkin to tS Tr^nW«? >" **^"^«'' ^''*^' '^'n *»><=
Wlute had C «nt bS h^ w. ' ,f -""^ I* '^""'^' Sir George
and besieg^"hSe by sup^oT for^'^K^"'' into Ladysmith
General Buller, de"pZE ufS S "fJ^^ ™''^'
siege, and met withreverse after ™ ^u^^° ""^ ^^^^
«».
56 REMINISCENCES OF THREE CAMPAIGNS
of the thiee by which access oould be got to the Orange Fiee
State. By it "General Gatacre had advanced, but after hii
serious defeat at Stormbeig was lying a few miles to the
south of it at Sterkstrom.
A hundred miles to the west of Gatacre was the third line,
running from Port Elizabeth into the very centre of the Orange
Free State, and this was occupied by a weak force under
General French, who had been recalled from Ladysmith at
the very last moment before the ring of the besiegers closed,
and was now blocking the road at Colesberg by which the
Dutch could have advanced into Cape Colony.
The fourth line went from Cape Town in a north-westerly
direction to Kimberley and Mafeking, important towns on the
western border of the Orange Free State and Transvaal, both
of them invested by the Boers. Along this line General Lord
Methuen had been sent with picked forces, had fought a
series of severe actions, met with a disastrous defeat at
Hagersfontein, and was lying on the Modder River unable to
make further progress.
All four lines were furnished with railways, by which alone
operations could be conducted in a land of such endless arid
plains and sterile mountain ranges.
Lord Roberts was on the seas, and large forces were being
transported in haste across the ocean for the further conduct
of the war.
It was impracticable for me, owing to the distance and loss
of time which would have been entailed, to proceed to Natal,
and I therefore occupied the time, pending Roberts's arrival,
in visiting the columns who were standing on the defensive
on the other three routes.
XV
To MODDEB RiVEK
My first expedition was to Methuen's force which, lying on the
Modder River, I judged to be waiting for reinforcements and
orders from Lord Roberts, who was soon expected. I hoped
to study some of Methuen's battlefields, and ascertain what
the medical arrangements had been during these fights. A
few days spent at Modder would also enable me to form some
idea as to the future prospects of gaining information if I
were to attach myself to his command.
Leaving all my baggage in the Mount Nelson Hotel in Cape
Town, I took the train for Jfodder River on the second evening
after arriving in the Colony. About five years previously I
SOUTH AFRICAN WAR 5^
to be good-natured «dt^wme'^v7,^^r"'T *~"»''«
This time there weieno ftJrlTf everything of interest.
««ept wWiers and 0^0^^' "1^"^ ' **'«'« "•« none
w^o'S-r^JCiT^ST^^^^^
th^";^,!! ateruiA':X»{''.?r:jSf '^ "' ^'
our train loyaUy ^^ *" '""^ '"ilf-breeds who cheered
f^m iS:fe£^;fth°foiro7"r?.„"rd"sf "*'^^ "' » »«-
Junction we S«o JimT^V * ofiBcers. and at De Aar's
French fo^on XpL a^'SfrK ""*t'',*i\"'' ''y G""*
with a repulse anS "a 3*0 ^oS-'s d^f "if ^^^ '"^ -"Ly-
tween lao and 200 men W^ »«^ k! °®'*" *"'J *»-
experience the uTiXmof^nteTat^v? """8"* '■y '''**"
fortified kopjes held b^^X^e^ °" '"^"""^ •»
As It was dark when we Uft ^wTSi
occasion see the „^. wST^J.^P' JST^T ^'^ ""» on this
which the line runs fo/ thTfll^ir^ '^l^''* "«'"" ^^^B^
country of agri^l?^? yfnevSS* ^'^ ""'^ t° Worcester, a
with milk and honev Mrt of til i f *°°?''' ' '""^ Ao'^g
the seacoast in tWs'^^.K ^eL'"'"^« "^'^ ""V* adjoin!
climbed the Hex HiverPas<= nTf • °" mommg we had
tableland which ffms the ^^t*o«fT/~t'' *° *•"" ^ '*«'
our eyes on the Karoo DeLrt^e„f.T/'"'"*' ""'^ "?«"«•
the name of a desert an^Hi;..^* "/^ ^ ^^"^ '*' '* Reserved
»nall tufU of t^;.l^r^i^'^P'*'" °^'"/y ''tony earth with
««tte«d mean d^^ S^''^B^t^r^ f'^ ^'^'- "'"^ &'"
had effected many SCS^hv tK. '^ J!!J"^?"'"« ^""^ years
pumps to utilise thrah»nH.?f \ '"t^'duction of windmill
Siven'^etSSsofcSSon fe™"' ^fK*?' *^«°" "^^
had arisen, and isolatXCits' hT^*** *"*" """'* *!"="'
esfontein, the pZertVof Mr ? ^"J* townlets. Mat-
a few sheds in.S^K~ tXl^U^"*1 ?°'" »*"«
owner, a Member of thrr-^jT*- ?.'P'""^' ""•* '*s capable
enenj^ wS, .ni kI ^f'slative Council and a num of
authorities as ThosStel and «„^f "^ "^"^ *° *»»' ■»■"*«*
wHierB. It waTThk C r-"^"* •«""« for invalid
Wauchone's bX H™1 J?*^ ""^ '"ought Generel
•t Matjesfontein ^ "™' "> his own pretty oemrtery
il
• '; 1
M;'!i -^^
58 REMINISCENCES OF THREE CAMPAIGNS
Every bridge and culvert on the line was now guarded by
the pickets and white tents of the Cape Mounted Rifles ; jumJ
from the Cape Town Highlanders in their picturesque kUts
who were being drilled in the great square of Cape Town, aU
the way onwards up the line, everything spoke eloquently of
war ; the sword was waving over the formerly peaceful land.
At Richmond we crossed the Nieuwefeld Mountams whi^
form the northern boundary of the Karoo, and thenceforw^
were in another great plain, less arid and more populated,
which extends aU the way to Kimberley and far beyond it.
During the morning, ere we reached De Aar s Junction, 1
heard another account, from Major S , a fellow-traveller,
of the strong feeling which was springmg up concerning the
neglect of employment of women in the campaign. Slany of
these, he stated, trained nurses and others, were anxious to
assist in the hospitals, up country and at the front, but were
not allowed the privUege ; while every day mformation was
filtering down the line of the very urgent need for theu- services,
of many bad cases, especially of wounds and typhoid fever,
being attended only by men of the R.A.M.C, with merely
'Sisters' who were not trained nurses over them. Dissatis-
faction was felt, he affirmed, not only by the men and women
of the Colony, but by the officers of the army as weU.
Indeed, that this discontent with the attitude of the medical
service towards outside help must have been widespread was
confirmed by the fact that when we halted at De Aar at noon
it was again voluntarily brought under my notice.
At De Aar (Dutch, the Vein) martial law commenced, or
at any rate was more stringent, for being the only person on
board the train in civilian clothing, I was asked by a non-
commissioned officer to report myself to the colonel m charge
of the district. This proved to be Colonel R . and when
I had authenticated myself by the production of my papers,
we found we had mutual friends, and I met with a cordial
reception. He likewise at once spontaneously passed some
unfavourable criticisms of the medical regulations. A man of
enlightened views himself, he commented on the jealousy of
the medical department lest the perfection and adequacy of
their arrangements should be called in question on any point,
on the unreasonable impediments which were hem? placed in
the way of the sick and wounded receiving all the comforts,
indulgences, dainties, and cares that private benevolence was
so eager to place at their disposal, so ft..' as they were not
injurious to them, and on the fact that in bad cases the nursing
by trained women nurses which the pubUc were only too ready
to supply, and which would be received in pnvate life, was
SOUTH AFRICAN WAR 5,
refused by the medical authorities. It was he h«M ~.r
ticularly unjustifiable in the case of offlLJI wl.„ fif ' J^'
one would claim that they s^o?W ^'^^i;^"' X' wa"y
eWhSr^™^n «»uld only agree with him, that sta^
Z^M'JZZ^r^:,'^ " "^e^'^ that the officer shall
in rt rtnn!^ T.°"I' ^ "°* *^°' """i"8 sisteK doing duty
op^^kinHrof^dt.vS''"''''''^^*'"- -- ' "^--^ -t -
ran along i„ close proximity to the^estern sMe of ?he Stet?
3?M Ws"*;fth r "o'th^'er r •""P^ '"^ simplyihe 'ratwiy
plainsTduTd^^ turn's ItTdt ateet ^1^1^
kopjes now fortified and garrisoned/and ta The^^iddle "^^
of the ^wr"** *^' '*^*J°" •'°"^«''' ^^^ the griupTof tents
?o J »°M'«^' «nd a shaUow tiench and b^stwork-thp
SdTstlnr ""^ "^^ '" *'•' Soud«n^„elos'rg\rm ^^l
the^'ost'1^te™!r '7»n tK *'t """^^ »"y •"'* ^'-^ B«>""»'t.
It hTd tTn the :c nf •** »t°PP">8-places of this journey,
of advam^i^ * „!i ' °^ ""' °^ '•'^ *"'y battles on this line
01 advance, and was now commanded bv Colonel WW.C
whom I afterwards visited, as will be told later! But at^hat"
'1 ".
■■\
r.af II ■;
f'
at.
I '
60 REMINISCENCES OF THREE CAMPAIGNS
eriwW "t Modder River and Storlutrom ; fttnek Iwd iust
nute^ed wmething approwihing • check >t Coletberg ; and
Koberu. on whom all the ftitute depended, was stUl on the
high Mat. So in Britain and eliewhere doubt pravaUcd about
the luue of the war.
u^"^.^^ "^ "™'*' •*'• eoniniand at Belmont a irnaU
"°°y°^ Queenilanders and Canadian*, and by the time we
*mv«d there he had jurt carried out with the«e exiguous
wwei an entoTiriie which wai the only one showing that
Britam was stUfable to deal severe blow* on the enei^when
hat troops were properly led and suitable strategy employed.
Through hit intelligence department, PUcher had heard of a
unall army of Boers lying at Douglas, a town on the Vaal
Kiyer just above its junction with the Orange River, forty
miles to the wett of him. With a body of his men he set o*
at night for Douglas, stopped at and • sealed up ' every house
and hut on the way, leaving small detachments so that no
mteUigence of his movements might be carried, reached and
surnunded the Boer commando in Douglas, and with very
shght loss captured or killed every man of the enemy. He was
retummg m tnumph as we reached Belmont, and the pUtfbrm
was crowded with the prisoners he had taken. They were aU
m civdian clothes, and were guarded by the Canadiiis in sun
helinets and the Queenslanders in slouch hats with a bunch
or ostnch feathers for a plume. This feat of Pilcher's was
tolled as a great enoouragement, and relieved the prevail-
WlS^und "'"'' *'" **" ^'^ "'' "^ '**'* °" ' **^ ^^^
w.,^™*ilf T"L*° Modder River we passed many ostrich farms
Where the buds were feeding, quite tame and undisturbed by
the war, and several stations whose names were at that time
familiar to British ears, such as Enslin, Graspan, and Honey-
j : *'* "«°* »"d orderly camps of tents, with breastworks
arid trenches round them, and all provided with iield guns,
Maxims and so forth, where bodies of infantry were assoemted
with mounted infantry; and in the evening, as it became
cloudy, ramy, and cool, we came to the most forward point
occupied by our forces, on the then famous Modder River
Everywhere the eye was met by one great, uppareutly
boundless plam through which ran two rivers, th* Reit
lu 'wu"* *"?,* *'°^^" (*^"^) K'^e"- <="«i"8 deep passages
through the alluvial soil and uniting at the spot whereby the
station of Modder. Near by on the fork stood the wooden and
stone buildmgs of the hotel, which went bv the name of th-
in ' J* f"?""" resort of the inhahitanta of Kimberley.
AU around the junction of the rivers, encircled by an extensive
SOUTH AFRICAN WAR
one crap by faraway to^S.'l"fJ^'' ^T "'* *» '»«*• but
•nd water .uddIv ^f m.. Jn ""'t;?"* *° P'°*^ the weUs
andiepamnothesiSv7J?t h? h " *^ i? straightening them
but the cannon we«,hl\^w ^*i*' numerous ant hillt.
Methuei. ^ '^ "°"* ***' *•••" mes«age» to Lord
XVI
MoDDZR River Camp
mI*^''
t ; Tj
^ '1
■^^:J
V '■■
• •■ ■
♦
6» REMINISCENCES OF THREE CAMPAIGNS
of their medicAl arrangements. There was no pkee where I
could deposit myself and pass the night, but the station
authorities permitted me to Kleep in the carriage by which I
had come, and when I turned in there at ten o'clock, the
lightning was flashing round the eastern horizon, the search-
light was playing over the camps and sending up into the
sky intermittent messages to Kimberley in the north, which
answered also by signals thrown up into the sky. On all the
distant elevations lamps were sparking off their messages to
their base; and the enemy's lines at Magersfontein were
bestowing an occasional gun on our defences, which were
responding now and then.
The next day, after I had made a toilet at a bucket of wHtoi
on the station platform, was devoted to an inspection of the
water supply, and the typhoid hospital occupying the half-
finished schoolhouse with mcompleted walls, where there was
barely room to move among the over-crowded beds, with few
if any comforts, no charts, and of course no nurses except the
orderlies of the R.A.M.C. The ambulance service was in the
form of carts of all sorts, from the regulation British cars,
drawn by eight mules, and the Cape ambulances which were
really the better of the two kinds, down to the buck-wagons,
which were about the roughest means of transport for wounded
one could possibly conceive. I was fated to see much of these
wagons before I finally parted with the Modder River. I shall
merely add here that, while the medical officers were of a
quality which couM hardly have been surpassed, and had done
everything that was humanly possible for their sick and
wounded, the conditions they had to work under and the
materials supplied to them were such thi.t they did not bear
out the boast that the Royal Army Medical Corps was ' in no
way in need of assistance in its own department.' Even the
eyes of the non-medical officers could not fail to perceive that
things were not as they ought to have been ; and the very
privates saw it too.
At that time I saw the Boer lines only from a distance, and
shall have occasion to describe them fully later. In some
respects their ways were peculiar; they sometimes used
expanding bullets, though probably these were not supplied
by their government, but were the Jeflries buUets and others
which they employed in the game rifles to which they were
accustomed, and were not a deliberate breach cf the inter-
national understanding against them. Their ambulance men,
however, worked their big guns, and used their ambulance
cars for war work, but all agreed that they were humane to
the wounded, and were not bad fellows afb» all.
SOUTH AFRICAN WAR 63
STsSm' - "^ •^•*' Mqu.inUaoet whom I hMd iownta
the Soudan oampaign, u,d wme of my former puoS^ inth^
Unirer^y . « well .. other, with whom^l h^SeS .Wu.^tod
I. Ji j""' f °'°"*' Townsend, who had a kind and fHendIv
!n!f fh u^.l*^""" ""npany " 1 returned tS Modder lUrw
th. J^y' ** """ '^^ 'i'*^'* •>• <»"» give me was to do ^.T,!
the Bwatestprospect of seeing active work lay there nif 4«
Sr')i?l*''*1"'2'' '"'''" Town^nd gave mTa Ih^Je "
nuit^^'"' "•'"'' "" populated by the mort vinilenTmo^.
Sln^v. " **?" "f^^"' '°' "ft" pacing one night th^
below the grove of apricot trees in the headquarters, mv E
were covered with tlood-stained blisters WWch Vwe^L te .
great si„, and .0 infl«„«l the ab«,r^t v^lsTf m^J^t
""tmovement was painfiil indeed. '
While at Modder River I paid, with l^M M.fk... .
approval a visit .» Behnont. on^^Jo* to slf tt SlttlelSd
CoZh Kl r*"'t' ' P"" •"'' " '«*»" of introduSon to
Colonel Pilcher who was in command. Lord Methuen e«
pressed himself a. being interested in my design of^SSytaa
the condition, of hi. victory thero, and so also iS the mXI
officer, who had taken part in it, and fh>m both I™^
valuable information and hints as to the special feat^I^
pr«|ented ; indeed, on mj return to ModdeMl^ver th^i^
^pected my plan, and supplemented them with many vaSLble
detail, whicli could not otherwiw have been obtS
I
.1 »*1
xvu
BsUfONT
te^*r»^TnJi".''^"v''y. '***'°" °f ^•^o"*' on the line
7m JS'^D °^ *? Kimberley, some thirty miles to the south
.f Modder River, there was fought a battle between the eS
.nder Lord Methuen and the Boers, which to a Sm: of
nUitary sui^geo; is one of the most instructive of the i^^ny
perations m the Boer War. Accounts of the battleTre
^™L. ""/'**^ *'''*•"?" e^ *" South Afncan Campai^"
ature than the present, but an account of what I mviielf
bserved and learned from many who had narticipated W
^U^»^ ^ °^ some slight value and mterest.'^ My ^ t
.ught, and I had the assistance of officers who had tato^ p^
64 REMINISCENCES OF THREE CAMPAIGNS
in it, u well as of war comspondents who had been there.
The Boers were still showing considerable aetirity on both
sides of the railway line, endeavouring to cut our communica-
tions, and their artillery was sounding in the west, where
mounted reconnaissances were endeavouring to locate them
and frustrate their intentions.
The railway line at Belmont station ran from south to north
over a vast plain which was to the eye a dead level in all
directions excepting to the east, where there was an elevated
group of bare hills, four miles fh)m north to south and two
from east to west, a mile distant from the station which was
directly opposite to them. The best description I can give
of the grour of hills is to liken them to a huge dead rhinoceros
lying on its side with its head to the north and its snout,
fore-legs, and hind-legs pointing towards the railway. The
rump, hind-feet, fore-feet, and snout were strongly fortified by
the Boers with numerous breastworks of stone, and so also
was a small detached eminence in firont of the snout. Behind
the group, i.e. to the east of it, was a mile broad dry watercourse,
and beyond that was another long group of hills, similar in
size to the former, and also standing out in the plain. On its
farther side or slope was the Boer laager. Three miles away
to the north of the fortified hill, hidden by rising ground, the
Boers had their field hospital at Bushof 's form.
On the 28rd of November 1899, when the battle was fought,
the British force, about 8700 in number, and consisting largely
of the Guards Regiments, was drawn up in line opposite the
fortified hills, at some distance to the west of and parallel to
the railway. Our bearer companies were with this line, and
our field hospitals on the right rear, near some buildings called
Thomas's farm. The cavalry Were on the fianks. The attack
was a frontal one, and when it had advanced and reached the
railway, the artillery were established there and came into
action. As the line advanced farther in open order across the
plain, where there was no cover, the Boers opened fire, and the
first casualties took place at about twelve hundred yards from
the enemy. Owing to the height of the Boer positions, it seemed
to me when examining the ground that the zone of their fire
would have had a breadth of only about seventy yards, for
their missiles must all have been directed at an angle down-
wards. Before the hill was reached, our men had to ascend
slopes, at first of five to ten degrees for over a thousand yards
through short, prickly bushes ; but at the hill foot the slope
increased to twenty degrees, or over, with scattered rounded
stones a foot and a half in sice, giving no cover ; and finally,
beneath the Boer breastworks, the slope increased to forty
SOUTH AFRICAN WAR
which decided ther^^t fi^fl* fc^" ^ ""^ ^^' »»yonet
by carefully cut«„gl';l°'t^^%^'^"«' ^^' "^ ' «J=^ted
twelve by twelve fet TnT .^ ! P, "* ''"'''" °''er areas of
««rth, reach^ a sev^rit„ of nn?"^'^ examining the ha^d^
forty^ight squaw f^^ "°* """* **"" °"« bullet in evei^^
brS^sJ:fto"tt ro4s™a'rtsri:f *'^ '^y"-*- ^^
«»valry had made a gallaTeffort to ^^^l """^ ''«'• »"
them, but it was a task Chari^^r tK °"*^"^ """* '"^"nd
and men, and most ff „^aU ^f tL ft "^t^"* ''"'^''^y Worses
farther hills were a so defenW«? a t^"^« escaped. The
swept clear of tte fo^l^W th ' ^t^^ *° ^ '"°™«J '"d
character of the artLn w»! ^ ■^''* :^"* »* « ™d, but the
were not obta^blarthrtLrf^ ^^^^- """ ''^t^ils of It
The work of thf A™J„ «^* °f o ^ observations,
of Colonel Townstd^J Eri^^'Ct '\''^''"^
When the bearer comnan^ hr^Hir; .t ^^" admirable.
fieM hospitals were S foSs t^th^' "T""'"^^' '^'
and a ganger's hut farSerT^ S! ^i" '*l'^»y station
•tations wer^ establL^ u„"er th^^heYtS^Af T^"'' ^''^
spurs of the first hills which Thflrt.."' **■* projecting
hind feet of the recum^nf rli^o^^^i-^Xm t^ '""^ '"'
Colonel Pilcher leadingTcol,^^!' '''l!^ *° **>' "^-tb.
(funs, and wagons, off to thi^^S mounted men, infentry,
PVee State boS^ and wheTl w?'* ^^IT^'' '^' ^^^
photographing a m^u'nt^ ot^r 1^^^'^!^™^* """^
■nquire what I was doinff b^Mt ^'^^?^ ^^ them to
satisfied him. As I nZ^^ ^' exhibition of my pass
beyond the tortmj SS^^^r^^T^ ,'^' ''"'^ ""•* ''"*^t
the farther range I had *^~*'„*be watercourse to the top of
distinguishable^' „ey tw^'^ir* '''J''^ ''^'^'y
^Bt of our outposts S^n ^™'*' P»'^ *br«ugh thi
'he Boer laager Ktj^nl^v flJ^™ "*"™"« from*where
»kyline, and I was cartu,Jlf*^"r! conspicuous on the
"ho had been ^nt S^ke me '"n"* "^^ '^'^ Canadians
tet me continue, and I w^s on Z way wlT ^ 5"" '•"^^
"hen I was similarly arrested Ibv TnnfK V ''"^quarters
»ho, not satisfied wit^pa^rorr^r" *^T,^'^" P'^"'**'
™«pect. because the ci^K ^»e a'r^"^'"'=""^ '°
*-. h.n.self an AlSSonia" tr'i:;v^^"rt"'"e„^J:^
•' I'.l
Li
f p
.Mi
' 1
^;r]
1 ■ ;^ J
,
■'lj^,
'1
t > '''[
.lu
im|
66 REMINISCENCES OF THREE CAMPAIGNS
relieving the tedium of a wearisome day at outpost duty by
the joke of marching in a fellow-Aberdonian as a prisoner,
took me before the otBcer in command. This was Lieutenant
(afterwards Brigadier-General) Armstrong, who later became
a good friend of mine. He was living the life of a mole in a
cavity which he had scratched in the ground and had covered
over with bushes, and he seemed to appreciate the monotony
of his existence there being broken by my having been brought
in as a captive ttoia beyond his lines ; so I shared his hos-
pitality before betaking myself farther. We discussed the
Boer breastworks, for at the time of the Belmont battle they
had not devised their system of trenches which subsequently
proved to be so novel and effective a method of defensive
warfare and has since revolutionised military tactics. At
Belmont they still built their defences in the form of stone
breastworks on the top of eminences, the height of which
necessitated their firing downwards, and so narrowing the
zone of fire through wUch their assailants had to pass. At
Belmont, as I said, the zone was some seventy yards. Later
on, at Magersfontein, for instance, after they had gained in
the Modder River battles the added experience of firing from
sunk banks such as the river ravines across a dead flat in
front, where the zone of fire extended to perhaps seven him-
died yaids, and was the more deadly, they adopted the system
of digging deep narrow trenches at the foot of the hills they
were defending, a method which enabled them to sweep the
plains in front and do terrible execution on our forces as they
came forward, thus rendering a frontal attack almost impos-
sible of success ; and having the added advantage of causing
our artillerymen, before they learned the trick, to waste their
ammunition on the harmless hills behind.
On returning to the station, which was kept by a Boer
farmer De Kock, whose wife and five little girls and two boys
had passed through the fight unscathed, and were happy
among our soldiers, I had reason to congratulate myself on
the honesty of these potential enemies, for I found a belt full
of gold, which I had forgotten on the verandah in the dusk of
the morning, lying where they had placed it on the top of my
shoulder-bag, with its contents untouched.
I may perhaps add here the result of Colonel Pilcher's
expedition of which I hac! witnessed the departure in the
morning, as it was afteiwards told me by Mr. Smith,
Mr. O'Donoghue of the Doily Chronicle, and Mr. Wallace,
Renter's representative, with whom I subsequently travelled
down to Cape Town . Its destination was the farm of the Iocs I
commander uf the Orange Free State troopj, a man of the
SOUTH AFRICAN WAR
one of them and taken a^rhrpSe"" tII""*^' '^""""^
was conveyed to LubW's form , ,!?^ n T^* ^"^^ded man
attend him, but he refi.sedS A " ^'J^'"^^ sent for to
EngJishman. On his refnXoVtSe w "" ^^J P"*'*'"* "»^ «»
,^'.VT *!i''"" *° JoeobX a 5^e Statist "^ """^ "nwounded
m the hands of the Boers where th^ ^" 'i" *''^ ^''""ty
hiimaneJy treated. C^eipSlJ^^TT^'^ '°^^' ^"^
pn«ners had been «mov^hop^''t''"°t *'^* t"'"
the Boers themselves. ml^^Z, "^^ *''*'" ""^ "^Pture
to surprise and punue ^^e^^^^Zf/' I-^bW's in^iime
managed to escape after beim, t.,!f f u '^i™' ^""^ however
landers Some ^s w^e^ft^^^y ^f ^f* by the Queens-
with whatever else was lik^ST u ""^ *"''^" ""ay. alonn
Klcher.s force was thrndit^'^ the^f"'."^^ *° the^eb^l^
and the mounted men ren«inT^' f '"^""try returning home
they did. bivouack"g'S'"fhl°na''°'T'"'«^ ThS
started next morning Lin t7s*™""8bt °" the veld, and
ascending an elevat^T^ o/^nH •~"",Vy- They were
to the Free State border »n^ ^ "^ '" " direction i4ral]el
Lubb^-s farm, c^nvoy1S\y\%^^«f «« -agon takeKm
hadgottanirled imwitw^ ""*" ""der Major B
the K wK Cy of mtr"'' "" ^'^"«" behtrde^'
bearing down on thd^^si^irfo"' ^""t,!""" ^'"'"g' ''as ^f
^ted wagon and itsl.S,fef^"^ ^^1^.!'^ °° '^e be
for a fight ; Major D - hw^Loff fl'^.u'^" ""«*« ready
temforce Major B •« .,„°ii !? °** 5?" the larger body to
tion of the JhllT^':^^^y-^.'n^<^mJorar^i^.
themselves to the hS, thSirT'"*: ^'^y ^ d'^nd
feet apart, rifles were load JSthe^„°J" .'?. °P*" "^'^ eight
given, when D - who h^n'l^ °'^ 'Ready! Present I •
of the antagonists' Id^a^^ ^d"hT.^ ''^ *''« ^'^^
through his glasses, reSd that^e t^M*".''^*"* *bem
»peaK among them, and that thev t, W* S' ~"M «*
accordmgly rode stwight ovct to thL * * ^u ^"*"b. He
P«.d for with his life had they b^n SUt^ ""^J". ^"""^ ^ave
was m reality as he had sn^icfT j ^' """^ *0"nd that it
to the Belmont me^ weariS^^chZ J rt' f^^^'"' °^^
to open fire on his party, whlmthev ^^ *' *'"' ^''"'' about
to attack, and whL therhad l^e^'telS'eTl.''""^"^'^
Both sides were eager to feht and it i^ ?>" "'^ morning.
I ^^^t^"'Z^^':rn.1^^^;^^. ^ «^^'r River,
-und^lorinva Jed,Lj™tlgt'- :?;w^ad^^
li I
ti'^i
i 1
i : '
■ ■ n
! •».
68 REMINISCENCES OF THREE CAMPAIGNS
regiments at Modder, after having been treated in the hospitals
at De Aar and farther south, and had an opportunity of learn-
ing trom them the opinions of non-commissioned officers and
privates on their experiences there. All agreed in criticising
unfavourably the army hospitals, where they had been denied
those small luxuries which meant so much to them and would
have relieved their sufferings and discomforts during their
convalescence. Some had iMen treated in a hospital which
was provided, they understood, by the Good Hope Society, and
there, in contrast to the others, they had had daily gifts, such as
cigars, fruit, and newspapers. I was told that when they were
in camp in Cape Town there were many who wished to send to
the private soldiers such things as effervescing drinks, Eno's
fruit salt, tinned and fresh fruit, and tinned daintiej, which
would have been very welcome and which they missed in
these hot days, but that such things were not allowed to
reach them. Some of them who had, during the cold weather,
been occupying tents, longed for the simple indulgence of
nightcaps to cover their h^ds at night, but such things were
either not sent to them, or if sent, not issued.
xvm
Modder to Cape Town
Having gathered all the information which I required at
Modder, I took the train back to Cape Town. We had a
delay of nearly six hours at De Aar Junction, which gave
me an opportunity of visiting the military hospitals there
under Major Perry Marsh, containing, at that time, about
160 patients, 85 of whom were being treated under bell tents
and the remainder in woodoi huts, erected at a cost of
£1500 each, forming very good wards of 100 by 25 feet or
thereabouts. The typhoid fever pases only seemed to have
their temperatures kept ; the arrangements for treating firac-
tures of the thigh by extension could have been improved
had better beds been provided ; and there were few comforts
for the inmates. There were no antitoxin serums. I was
shown a tent crammed with all sorts of gifts for the patients,
such as fruits, fresh and preserved, tobacco, clothing, etc.,
which were, I was told, being distributed as seemed judi-
cious. There was no X-ray apparatus, and the instruments,
sterilisers, irrigators, etc., were somewhat ancient in type
and not quite what one would have expected in the Thud
Stationary Hospital of the Lines of Communication. There
were, moreover, at that time no nursing sisters at De Aar.
SOUTH AFRICAN WAR ^
awaiting 81*0^4^ J^n^?^""'?"*' ^^^^ we had been
by a r«ash out^n the line S".,,*''"''. "^^ been dela^S
our joumey to Cape Town We^''^"''u'"^' *« eonHnued
the night, ind when b^kfast^T^ ''"l^"^ °«*^rt *"
I eneountered twenty-fiv^ i&tu °'"?i**'' "'''^ "noraing
to escape f„>„ the E «^\;''?^ fl«<l f""n Vryburf
eWdren with them, and S been ^f^tt- ^''f'f '^'""«'" »nd
and eight weeks diwn JS^nC^" *^ne' ^'tween seven
where they had joined ^r f™i '" ^^^ ''eaehed De Aar,
utter destitutio„,Cd lad Lf^'S' fr^u"' *^"" ^«« «
to breakfast, which w^ a U for whom ^^ "" "?''* °' *em
be found, and telecraDhed In fK- T ^^"^ """^ '^""d could
meal of bread, nim and ^,« "*** ''**'°" to have a good
five. When Cfrriv^ tw' ^^"t^ ^°' '^' ^J""'" t*e?^
heard their story Thi ^^eLTu'!?" ''"J"^*"* this, and
number sick in^he han^f the ^^'' '"i^^ '^° °' t^eir
about thirty trat t^ad^^P^jS'IS InTr"' ' ^''°""' *»'-''•
bemg conveyed up to 0,7^.^* sorts of munitions of war
we arrived, there Ce ttw~f tW "" I"^'' ^y' «ben
there would have ^1^^^: r^etl^ i;?^™"
XIX
Cape Town TO PoBT EwzABETH
^^^G^^i F^i^L^rTlL^r^r '^™'*^ - °'"»-«
mission necessary for my vStinrAt'^ rn"*"'^ ">* P«'-
lymg at Sterkstrom near si!,ri^K. "T' '^"tacre's fSrce
membered he had met wrth « r^'*' ^^"^ '* "'" be re-
Boers. " "'*'' " """st senous defeat from the
^^'St'^^'Sof:'^r^'kZ''^' 'r^^' - " ^-f time
oa board the ^«3/i^ rJ^f''''^^ ' P'«"s were ripe, f went
b«ther,ana:aloffl"^h^':'i^',:?"8 -th Grenfe^Tand Z
for the Daily Mail, and fo?nd T „!. P^'"" T"'«P""'l«"t
tmveller with Mr. Webster D«vi« 7k 1?"'"*° ^ « ^^-Uo^-
Pfthiserwithwhomlh^L" "• *^"*'""'<=^n Boer sym-
KeUy Kenny Tnd Tis staff wT^ T ^'^ ^°«'''"''- ^^'^i
l-y the steamer, and 1 4asinTrodu?S'?l!?« "^ ^^^* I^ndon
-ved. XheE.lofTJ!!ltt;ll^^"irmTaf^
. ,. t-
■f :|
! 1
;?
' [;
n ^ ,
ii|
1 .'
1
I'JI
' IliJ
1L'a!^Br.^£74KV!jaKbi.--v~%£&i.v
70 REMINISCENCES OF THREE CAMPAIGNS
compatriot ; he was endeavouring to obtain a command, but
had not as yet succeeded and found difficulty in doing so.
Mr. W , who had been spoken of very highly to me, was
also on board, and gave me a letter to his brother in Queens-
town, in case of my requiring advice there about a plan I had
formed of endeavouring to make a dash across disturbed
country to French's column after I had seen Gatacre's.
Our steamer was prevented from starting until 2.80 in the
afternoon, when we sail«i out of the harbour and roadstead,
winding our way among numerous vessels and through flocks
of large black I'rds of the duck species which were swimming
about in great companies between the vessels. We passed
close to H.M.S. NMe, and I obtained a photograph of her and
her steam launch, lying close to her like a baby duckling by
its mother duck. We passed one of the hospital ships flying
its characteristic flag near the north breakwater, and then
rounded Sea Point, where the hotels and factories were
heliographing their names to our steamer.
The Dunottar Castle was a fine vessel, very well fitted up,
and we old Mexicans congratulated ourselves on the change
for the better. Her fine large state rooms, numerous con-
veniences and fittings, and marble baths, appealed to our
sense of luxury. It&ny passengers and business men were
on board, proceeding to the various coast towns, parents and
children were booked to similar destinations, and one passenger
was an otBcer in Remington's Guides, who had been captured
by the Boers in one of their flying raids. They had told him
that they would not allow him to accompany them, and tiiat
he must either be shot or give his parole not to serve against
them ; he chose the latter course ; they treated him well,
deprived him of none of his ornaments or trinkets, and on his
pointing out that he would have to travel on foot for a journey
of two days through disturbed country to reach British lines,
gave him his revolver and one cartridge.
As we sailed, the children on deck were indulging in a fight,
the ringleader being a small maid of five. I quelled the dis-
turbance by letting her work my firelighter, gave her a lemon
squash with 'ots of sugar in it, took her along to the barber's
cabin in the alleyway which was distinguished by a barber's
pole, and left her happy consuming a big box of bonbons and
chocolate creams.
Next day, Sunday, the 14th January, we steamed quietly
past Cape Agulhas, and along the coast of Cape Colony.
There was no divine service. I had a long talk with the
General, and with his permission introduced Mr. Webster
Davis to him. In the evening we reached Port Elizabeth,
SOUTH AFRICAN WAR
whiJe the Geneiund hil^Sr!^i°'^?'^« « » t^.
foUowing momi^. '^ "'""'^ on bo«d untU t£
XX
Port Elizabbth
of Port ESh"°'':S:t ' Vf ^'•n ^^f^^ "'" *« fw^
the sea, and hence is b^th L?»k "'"^!,'^ ^^tWy open to
«« breeze blow" whi,*!? <J^ * ""? dangerous ; whS the
m of white watoi^ti^HheT'^ 7"^ ''^*«™°°"' it «
to and ftom the^onf m^* ■ *™"'ference of passengers
goods da^^g to air«* "^P'T"*' """^ *'«' handli^Tf
weU-protertS^L^Bes f^P*i"« *" strongest articles or
from'the hold ffihS;^ 'in o L^" banged violently up
««r.a,asthecasemayt^ Vtao^^?I "k"* '«''*«^ °' "*«
and rough stronir wind, fn JT °1««"t'e breezes are unuiual.
this ternVr^hf C^\'u?"t urf'!5"'\*"^°^*'«<='i^
two wooden piew ^jeSta^ j!^ "ts d«wbacks There we,;
landing.plac£ on Dil« ^*. "" *"' ''"* t''^ were mere
a-d l^e'shi^. „7wS '^T^ Tdt^J'T'^ ^'^^
present at one time, thousTth^rw^if .^ . ordmarily six
our visit, had to anchor fL^s 7),.^ "^^^ "'^ ^^"^
much exposed to hrin»M ! ** ^^^ ^"e they woi
battere^^e^sSw W«'T;k" r*^*? '^"°* ""^ ^
once met with thi? fete on ?^^ ^"j "*''"" ' six of them
»sho» the day we L^^ ° *'"' '^' ^^^ «"«» ^^ saw one
General Ke% Kennyra^v fni^r'v!" '''8'' «»»»««J *»
»nk of DirictorS^^te fe *"^"1.' ~« *° *»«
complaining of my w^T^t t^^'^7^ *» headquarters
authorisation ; hS actT^u J? „ ^'T ' T**""" "^thout
instance of th; attitude LCf!^ . no trouble, but it was an
m the medical s^c^^du^K ^artltS't ^^ '°'"'' °«-«
'ng reforms. * P°" ^ "^ taken m advocat-
^'iit
■:■(■ 11 4
I HI . ?
7S REMINISCENCES OF THREE CAMPAIGNS
ahabby houKs and stores among its prettiest edifices. Raaeh-
ing the shore was not onattcnded with disagreeables ; it was
an awkward step from the accnmnK>dation ladder at the ship's
side inti) the heaving little steam tug beneath, but the help-
fulness of the sailors rendered it safe to most, though one man
slipped, and fell down the ladder, and was only prevented
from pitching into the sea by a hemp fender that lay at its
foot. We tossed about imtil all had come aboard iie tug,
and were drenched by spray and our feet wetted by the seas
which kept washing inboard, while just as we were casting off
it was so owtrived that the port side of the tug on which I and
some othfi's sat was brought under a cascade of watrr flom an
aperture in the steamer's side where the water esK^ped in a
large stream ttom the condenser of the engines, or something
else. My mackintosh saved me, but siome lad: had th«ir
diMKs ruined by the douche. On reachii^ the jetty we had
to nold by a swinging rope made fasit above, and jump on the
steps when a favourable moment occurred.
After seeing the town and malting some purchases, including
a basket of the irresistible fhiit of the place, oranges, giapei,
pears, peaches, grenadillas, plums, banana*, and mangoes, for
Grenfell, who was not yet strong enough to leave the steamer
and face the rough landing, I went to say adieu and widt good
fortune to Gwieral Kelly Kenny. At the station, a gentle-
man to whom he had been talking came after me and reminded
me that he was a comrade with whom, when last we met, I
had ridden out on the march to Tamai in the Soudan, and
whose magnificent physique I had admired as he sat his horse
in command of the artillery there . He was now Major W ,
Base Commandant at Port Ehzabeth, and he offered to be of
any service to me he could, and invited me to come to visit
him if I again passed that way.
By the time we had to return to the Dunottar CaitU the wind,
which had freshened, was blowing almost a gale, and the water
m the bay was very rough indeed. The scenes when going
out were almost indescribable. The staggering jump from
the jetty into the heaving, splashing, and disappearing tug
bek>w was no trifie even for an agile man, but it had to be
taken as well by leuiies, children, and tipsy men. The women
hung back and grew pale at the sight before them, but were
finally in desperation coaxed to try it, and were all safely got
into the boat by the skilful boatmen. The poor children
screamed and ran away up the steps and had to be caught and
carried by force by the sailors, who, however, managed to
hand them aU safely in. But really a special providence
seemed to watch over the drunken recruits or soldiers ; they
SOUTH AFRICAN WAR „
Queen andXt l^ ^* P«tnotic soiiB»-God save the
« ODod d«il of fJrrr J ■ ^ »pla«hed inboard.ai t stopped
electnc lights, and most of us had long been asler . ino "
Mk
■) m
HI,
74 REMINISCENCES OF THREE CAMPAIGNS
esbint befon mil ihook into their places, and the veHc
■teamed once more out into the open lea and made eaatwaidf
along the coart tor her next stoppage at East London.
XXI
lUlT LoMDOlf
Bast London was reached very early on the morning of
Tuesday, the leth Januanr, and as seen from the sea had an
entirely different aspect firom that of Port Eliiabeth. The
latter appeared arid, treeless, grassless, and presented mostly
sand and dry bushes, while the former was green with herbage
and beautified with trees, looking like a piece of Old England.
From the sea Port EUxabeth seemed to be an irregular garish
town, while East London showed on its front a pretty and
regular series of villas like those of a fashionable watering-
place, constructed of cool whitish or yellowish walls with
ornamental fronts and red painted iron roofs, embowered in
groves and forests of trees, and beside it emerged a capacious
river, which came winding down out of the interior in stately
curves, flouing through deep wood-clad banks, and escaping
between two converging breakwaters over a troubled sandbar.
This was the Buttalo River. The breakwaters were fine
specimens of engineering, founded on masses of concrete blocks
of the sise of a house deposited on the sand, and finished with
regularity above. Against them the big Antarctic rollers beat
ceaselessly into surf, but were powerless to move them ; and
through the opening between them glimpses were obtained up
the river, showing peeps of ships and steamers which lay
withm, but merely peeps, for the wharves and landing-places
were a mile or so up stream, and East London was reached
from the landward side, not from its sea face. Villages of
white tents stood all along the beach, where many of the in-
habitants came to spend the summer under canvas, and their
numbers were then augmented by crowds of refugect from
the interior, some of whom were even persons of wealUi who
had fled from the troubles up country.
The debarkation arrangements, though resembUng those at
Port Elizabeth, differed from them in some respects. So
fierce is the sea that landing is sometimes impossible at East
London, hence it was less favoured and less used as a seaport
than its rival. Most of the heavy traffic for the Orange Free
State and Transvaal, such as heavy machinery, goes up
country by Port Elizabeth, and wool, mohair, and ostrich
feathers are extensively exported through it, giving it thus
SOUTH AFRICAN WAR fg
th^ «inffT* "T.^r ^°'"'' •'Wch d«U mof )y with
It hS . !?^ f "^"^ traJe.. .. weU «s over E.«t London.
diS^HH^fi^S^',."! **"'^''« ^'^'^ iUu.ti.ted well the
difflcult,esof debarkation at East London. A tug was brouaht
deSeS «tt^ been .hum down into it in greit nets by
demcki and donkey engines, a large basket of cane shan^
wa'jx^iiSr " "T* .'*"'*• "'<•'*'•«» high »n:;zs
was deposited on tlie steamer's 3eck on its flat bottom bTa
stoim o^ane worfang overhead, and w. were toW th^t m thU
tte pattengers were to be sent on board the tug. I w°"
pencils into a case, when a door opened in its side an<f into
oS^^r^?cK:S *^' P^""^" "•>° --«'«> 'hmselv^
on small benches fixed as seats round its sides ; the door was
K''a"nd°th'r'l"''^'^'*''i^'' '*' inmates Washoist^'i^"
Uy Wow ^n mv"^ ^T'"*' '^' '" '"*° **>« tug which
«?^l«fri. "™° "y own turn came to descend, they let me
f^ tt T ^1^ ' ''TP °» *•« '^•«'' "' the tug, reLrkW
as I was tumbkd out. 'Oh, it's only a soWier ft won^
an^w^ignoSj:.'^'' "°*' *^"«'' ^'^^ ^^ ^^> '«S
SSiTe XL^.n,f'^K "^"^ "^ "* *«" »'=''• ^°^ the wind
th?!^- ^bI' iiy."",*"- Y't we were not splashed by
i^uS^l«!'»!l^°'*,?''?'**' ""•* ^ 't had been smooth M
would have been well ; but we were told we could at least
congratulate ourselves on the fact that it was often ve,^ much
l^A T f^** "^^'I^- 't the long last, we set off for the show
and I waved my adieus to some of the friends I had made ™
the Z)u„o««- CoHle. We steamed shorewards througrrough
waves all hurrymg to break in surf rollers on the land, direS
^^Tnt' "■? "IV^ ^""^ "^the grey breakTat;^ wh^
stoetched out into the ocean like cyclopean walls, and were
A^lr ente^*?h ^ V " *••"" ""^ *•>' '^ter became ZZ^.
o^Zthtr^^ ' ^^"^ ".r'" ''"h its high wooded banks
for nlitl, , t' "' "^.^ "^ '^ ^"""^ ^"^ th* centre of Africa.
Z^tV ^T n°'J'°"« '"'« visible, but after sailing ^p
rSdstLmTltr v/*^*! ^J^^ 8""'»''t was anchored
^d^t^f ^'''^**;*''?^ ^"«'^'» ^*1°" moving about
?he .^^ V ""^""t their rifles and Maxim guns One of
the moored ships bore the name Trajan and had on bow and
•f Hi
•' '.'3
MiatOCOPr RBOIUTION TEST CHART
(ANSI and ISO TEST CHART No. 2)
1.0 !t
I.I
33
■ 23
12.0
'■1-25 11.4 iii.6
A
APPLIED IIVMGE Inc
1653 £o»l Mom Street
Rochesltf, Nc* Tofk T4G09 USA
(716) 48! - 0300 - Phone
(ne) 2B8- 5989 -Fox
76 REMINISCENCES OF THREE CAMPAIGNS
stem the big red cross, the distinguishing mark of a hospital
We went ashore at a little landing-place at a bend of the
river, and having satisfied some easy customs formalities, I
got mto a two-horsed hooded gig caUed a Cape cart, and was
rattled away up a rough road, through woods which, when
seen near at hand, consisted of strange trees and gigantic cacti,
and wayside shrubs having flowers resembling yellow marbles
or long scarlet trumpets, which last I was told was the Kafir
honeysuckle. Large red and yellow butterflies hovered in the
air and became invisible when they settled and closed their
wings. We passed a handsome iron gate, the entrance to a
public park, but I had no time to visit it, for my object was
to get to the railway station to find out when the next train
left for General Gatacre's camp at Sterkstrom. It was I
discovered, to leave in the evening, so / had the whole day
before me, and ample time to explore. On walking down in
the heat for a couple of miles to the landing-place and wharves,
1 tound out the office of the Base Commandant, Major S
of the Royal Scots Fusiliers, met with the usual friendly
reroption and obtained a permit to travel to Sterkstrom Camp
and a note mtroducmg me to Major H of the R.A.M C
who was in command of the Trojan. '
Major H was good enough to receive me kindly, and
took me over the ship, which was an old Union liner that had
been fitted up m Southampton. She had two civilian medical
officers under Major H , and three nursing sisters wearing
the red cape, who were all very anxious to go up to the front
to the work there. I shall not describe the Trojan, but merely
state that she was well adapted to her purposes as the base
hospital for Gatacre's column, and was found so comfortable
by the patients that they rarely went ashore. There was a
clever adaptation of a sloping ramp to overcome the incon-
vemences of the ship's stairways, the invention, I rather think
of Major H- , and owing to the presence of the sisters the
wards were homelike and filled with beautiful flowers and other
pretty things. The operation theatre was dark, and even at
midday required electric light. There was a want of anti-
toxines and other medical and surgical requisites
After lunching with Major H and his staff I returned
to the railway station through much thunder and rain, met
there some Aberdeen friends who had heard of my visit, and
found that I was to have the pleasure of the company
Ste k t '^""^'"* ^' ^ ^ Tylden camp, on the way to
SOUTH AFRICAN WAR
77
XXII
Sterksthom
It was night when the train for Sterkstrom left East Ix>ndon
and only a faint idea could be formed of the land w1 were
passing through^ The carriages were arranged for s?^pTng b^
were unprovided with washing and dressing accom3fiion
Stiil they were comfortable enough, and the two Grenfells
te" rfnear T:?d» tT''" T ''""^ ^* ^°"' '" the moi^'^'g
we were near lylden station where thev were to Icrvi. ur,A i?
r wS""^ u'i'* '"' T '° ^ *»-* - -« pa^trCugh
a brautiful country such as now for the first time I beheld
m the mterior of South Africa. We were runnSg thwrnah
^ wrnhT"^ '''"^' ^•'r '^"' ""' e»^' fields aKa^ows
m which sheep and cattle pastured, and ploughed fields wheTe
hens and chickens picked about as at home Groverand
^t^ T If '"„"""" 8reen, where birds were ILZ
thmned gradually off up the sides of the grassy hills th" tons
of which were hidden in caps or trails of mist, and st;e;ms «n
±Wt^**°rt °l '^' ^""^y^- H^« «"d there ~p^
might be found on such a morning. It looked, in fact ii^t
hke home much resembling the fertile parts of CumSnd
and seemed all the more familiar that a gentle drizXa ^fn'
was falling, and the cold made it plcasf" to w^p "oS
what ^^r * ™''^""""\^ th°"«h it was. It show^ us
Th^L^ /''^''^"^ ""8''* ^ '^ 't ^^ enough of water
though the trees, except a row or two of Lombardy po^C'
were not the home trees, but were wattle trees and wU ow-
leaved mimosas, of which picturesque aloes and cacti ?onC the
undergrowth. The birds too had^only a shortly ter™n1hei^
song, and the red-coloured ant-heaps, resembling iriTnt moL
hJls^ whichthicklydotted every fieldfaccentuateSthS^ent
from Bntam, as morning wore on and the light increasS
The Grenfells left at Tylden to go to the ramp there which
was finely situated in the form of a perfert smiare nn th,
mrim""' °'^^ ""'' ''"''.""«'^' have'contain'^'t^Csa^d
hX T f ^•'°'?.'»«« the well-known horsemen of Colonrf
fw, 'v '"^ °^ '"^'"" '"°""*«^ '"f''°try who did adC
naUvrdialc^s!"""'^' ""'"^ '"°'*'^ ^"'""'^-^ -»«' '''-the
After halting at the little city of Queenstown when- «n.
l^^J'"^^' '"'^ '^' maLiair^or a Lsty toUet I
t^"^ T *° Sterkstrom, along with colonL felW-
travellers who were going in the same direction, and ^tt
\ I-
'I lil
I .' ta
1
I.
'"'1
» :
i
78 REMINISCENCES OF THREE CAMPAIGNS
whom one fell into conversation. I did not like to hear such
comments on the brave but unfortunate General Gatacre
as I had now to listen to from, among others, Mr. A M ,
a partner of the mercantile firm of M — — Brothers, a loyal
Englishman wlio had been in the colony for forty years and
knew the district thoroughly, his firm having branches at
Aliwal, Colesberg, Bethulie, etc., and even much wider
ramifications. But everywhere in this district the feelings
were bitter and strong on either side. Mr. M was a
resident in Queenstown, and was very frank and outspoken.
He considered that our generals were much to be blamed for
the selection of their advisers and guides in the Colony, having
chosen them from among men who were suspected of being of
but doubtful loyalty, and passed over in their favour true and
good subjects who were desirous of giving them their advice
and assistance. He and others drew graphic pictures of the
condition of the country in and about Queenstown. Mr. M
had suffered heavily in his business by the interruption of
trade and the enforced closure of his various branches in the
towns and districts occupied by the Boers, estimating his
losses in the preceding three months at £1000 and over.
Apart from the district being full of disloyal Dutch, the feelings
of soreness against the English military were certainly very
strong, even among our own countrymen.
The force under General Gatacre was intended to operate
against the south-easterly comer of the Orange Free State,
and eventually advance along the railway which led to
Bloemfontein, its capital. He had proceeded successfully as
far as Queenstown, where he found himself face to face with
a Boer army which had invaded the Cape Colony in that
quarter, and had driven them back, pacifying the country as
he went, to beyond Sterkstrom, some thirty miles to the north
of Queenstown. There he planned to surprise the Boers by
a night attack on their camp at Stormberg, but had not only
failed to surprise them, but had sustained a severe repulse,
with considerable loss of men and prestige. As a result, the
loyalists in the Queenstown district were incensed at him
and depressed, while the Dutch sympathisers were exultant,
and feeling on both sides ran very high.
No papers or passes were demanded of me when I entered
the townlet and camp of Sterkstrom at ten in the morning of
Wednesday, the 17th of January, and I proceeded at once to
the headquarters just across the railway line and close to the
station . I was received most frankly by Colonel D E ,
principal medical offictr of the force, who conducted me at
once to the General.
SOUTH AFRICAN WAR
79
Gataere, of whom I had heai-d so much, and of appearing
tefore whom I confess to having felt some awe, was altoKther
the reverse of what I had expected and been led to believe
1 had elsewhere seen generals with enormous and uncountable
arwys of packages and boxes containing all sorts of bagmBe
and comforts, but I found General Gataere living in a state
or the most Spartan simplicity. His habitation was a raUwav
carnage m a siding, and it served him for office, bedroom, and
everything, except that he possessed in addition a simple
bell tent pitched near at hand. After being presented to
Colonel A , the chief of his staff, and Captain H his
aide-de-camp, I was taken to see the General. He came out
or his compartment to receive me, gave me a cordial welcome
to his camp, and took me into his private retreat, where we
had p long and mteresting conversation. I on my part told
him all I knew about the actions and conditions on the western
line I had just oome from, and he, on his, explained to me
everythmg about his position and prospects at Sterkstrom
reservmg nothing. He gave me the plans of his position there
and personaUy walked about with me pointing them out and
showing the fortified posts held by the fibers who were
opposing him ; some explanatory plans he drew with his own
hand in my notebook. I also had his freest sanction to going
where I pleased and photographing and sketching everything
about the camp. He finally offered, quite unsolicited, to
place at my disposal an armoured tram in which I could
proceed to the outlying parts of the country held by the
torces under his command, and obtain a closer view of the
Boera entrenchments at Stormbei^ kopjes. I need haidly
say I was grateful for such kindness and willingly accented
the offer of the armoured train, which he forthwith ordered
to be in readmess for the afternoon
Having completed my plans o. .,ie Stormberg positions
and of the Sterkstrom camp, I was delivered over agam to
Lolonel D— - E , and taken to the field hospital, where
there were eight or nine cases of typhoid fever, fifteen or twenty
or gastro-mtestinal disturbances, a few wounded or injured
mostly from horse accidents, a couple of eye cases, and some
mmor ailments. The hospital consisted of ten double bell
tents under the charge of Major L . There was a fairly
good operation tent in which there was a simple and convenient
operation table, the invention of General Gataere himself
U seems that during some war (? the Franco-Prussian) which
occurred during his earhcr years, the General wished to share
m It and could obtain no post except that of an ambulance
driver, m which capacity he learned a good deal about the
I '."
J I
m
■ I
i .
' J
/' '1: i
■UMiu i
I
t 1 ■
> ♦
}:
|l;
r. '
B
SB
* L.
i
1
8o REMINISCENCES OF THREE CAMPAIGNS
medical service, and became interested in its improvement.
His operation table was the result of this ; it was cjm- act
and folded up into a flat board, very portable. The ins'tru-
ments of the operation tent were the usual ones ; they included
no X-ray apparatus, an application for one having been re-
fused on the plea that they were not supplied to field hotpitals I
The only lights with which to search for wounded nt night
were candle lanterns carried in the hand.
There were some apprehensions in the Sterkstrom camp
lest it should be surrounded and overpowered by the superior
tovce^ which were presumed to be occupying the country
around ; trenches were being prepared round the field hospital,
and an underground operation theatre wus being dug and
made bomb-pp;of in case of such an eventua ; and a hill
or ridpe on the west of the camp was being tu.tified in the
strongest manner possible with all the means at the General's
disposal as a place of final resistance. At that time Gatacre
had a force of only 8000 men to hold a front of twenty-
flve miles of mountainous region against a Dutch army
which was supposed to be much more numerous, and which
was striving to force the passes and pour down again into the
rich and disloyal district lying between and including Queens-
town and East London. With such an insuflicient body of
men Gatacre was unable to undertake any important enter-
prise, and t was rather surprising that he had been able by
constant vigilance and activity to maintain his ground and
even slowly to make slight advances. But it was apparently
the intention of those then responsible for the strategy of the
whole war to keep his forces where they were unless a move in
some new direction threatened his rear and compelled him to
fall back. It was a trying position for an active, ambitious,
and brave man, who was moreover desirous of obtaining some
success to atone for his misfortune in the Stormberg night
attack where he lost so heavily.
1 next visited with Colonel I) E the schoolhouse
which was being prepared for the reception of the typhoid
fever cases. Considering the circumstances, it was a good
and suitable building, well isolated, and was being put under
the charge of Sister R , an English colonial trained nurse
from Queenstown, but who had urgent need of another nursing
sister to relieve her in her duties.
I then proceeded to the luncheon with General Gatacre to
which he had invited me. It was indeed a most primitive meal,
in his railway carriage, and as simple as every meal I had in
Sterkstrom, consisting of a plain cupful of bovril, a plateful
of Irish stew, and a spoonful of rice pudding, served on a not
SOUTH AFRICAN WAR 8,
Xt™ ''i!?" *''^'^"^'°*h, with dingy dinner napkins. The liquids
a small glass of port wine and a cigar. The coffee was drunk
out of tin or enamelled mugs, the spirits and water from broken
«™! 1 *• ^*^^'^' ""i.^ ^^^ •""'*»«•■ ^«'t' ""d P^PP" were in
small tm canisters which seemed to have held tacks or pi ,.
nuLilff ^ "^*"' ^"'^ '''"''"*'* °^ ^'^ °"e made all most
pleasant and mterestmg ; the General himself took a lively
interest m every subject discussed, and extracted all the
details I could furnish him with concerning the plans of
^.^^r.'^h^^" ^""- ''"'^ Magersfontfin battles and
of all that I had seen m South Africa on my present visit.
The busy chief of the staff. Colonel A .found time to
SL" ^.?/-i"5,*° "" "ii** '° j°'" '" ""y jest tl^"w^
fn «mJi "'^"•^^■Tf- ^"P*^*" H .and I found much
IL^ u '^^ T ^^ common friends, and one of his
A^'^ "^ '" medicine in the University of
By the time our cigars were finished, I was told that my
amouMd trem was in readiness, and that the General had
given orders that it was to be put at my disposal to go wherever
I chose. He had also mstructed Colonel D — - E to
tel^ph or heliograph to the outposts to look out for us and
meet us at the places we wished to stop at. I photographed
my new conveyance, and was introduced to Lieutenant G—-
aoyal Irish Rifles, who had planned out and studied the train,'
J »i." '!' ""^ ^^ *•"= "designer of the signals for working it
and the tactics to be pursued in its management when used
agamst the enemy. At three o'clock Lieutenant G .
Colonel D-— E , twsnty-five armed soldiers, and I, got
on board and steamed northwards out of Sterkstrom towards
I^ '!!!i J^*^'..^*. u*"'™''^- ^ '<»™«* tJ^* this particular
armoured tram had been so well managed by Lieutenant G
that It was the only one in any of the columns which had been
of real service in the war. and indeed was the only one in South
Africa that was then anywhere in use. It had been constantly
employed both for fightmg and for repairing the railway lin^
when they had been damaged by the Boers, who had made
many artful attempts to wreck it at sharp curves, by throwino
down the embankment or removing the outer raU, taking away
the fishplates that linked the rails together, or by^sing a
litUe asunder the lines of rails so that the train might Tlip
down between them and be disabled ; but their artiflres had
not, on a single occasion, been etfectual in getting the better
?' r ^ constant vigilance and cleverness. Luckily they
Had not used dynamite, in the opinion of the lieutenant
'^■l
I' 1
1 i! ■ I
"•71 1*, "
I
82 REMINISCENCES OF THREE CAMPAIGNS
probably because they did not happen to have among them
any one who understood its use.
The train consisted of two cattle trucks with an engine
between them. Each was covered by a box of half-inch iron
plate, enclosing all except the short stump of the funnel.
Slits ran along the floors through which men lying down fired,
and also below the tops hrough which men standing on little
platforms eighteen inches high also flred ; and at both ends
were apertures for the Maxim guns. The slits and apertures
were closed during the cold nights by iron shutters, for both
officers .ind men regularly .lept in the train. There were
lateral doors for entering and smaller ones for oiling the
wheels and machinery. The tender with the fuel formed port
with the engine. The train had two whistles, one for ordinary
use, and one with a lower note which was not hearr' > far and
was therefore inaudible by the enemy, and also a t , and by
these signals were given to the drivers and the uutposts,
according to what was required, such as ' Go on,' ' Stop,'
' Go back,' ' Open shutters,' ' Close shutters,' ' Fire,' ' Cease
firing,' etc. The train weighed 120 tons.
After crossLig level country for some distance we entered
a region resembling the Grampians at the sources of the
Aberdeenshire Dee, and then commenced, by a series of loops
»nd turns, to climb the ranges in front of us, over bridges and
through many cuttings, along a track which was a most
creditable piece of engineering. A big homed ram got on the
line, and the whistle sounded in vain to warn him olt. The
train slowed down and stopped, but not until the ram had got
a bump behind which he was not likely soon to forget, though
his life was spared on this occasion. As we crept up, the plain
below, with the camp in its centre, spread out map-like before
us and we could better understand its arrangement. Yet
higher, and we got views of lateral valleys, and some lovely
lonely recesses in the hills, where farms nestled, shut ott from
all the world save by a narrow portal where road and stream
emerged side by side; and we passed groups of soldiers
watching over the safety of gangs of platelayers and railway-
men repairing the parts of the line that had sustained damage.
Climbing to the skyline of the range, we stopped, got out, and
found horses waiting for us to ride to the fortified prnk called
the Buschmannshoek, which we had selected as our place of
outlook. On its top we found a fort with cannon, Maxims,
breastworks, and tents, and were met by Major A of the
Royal Irish Rifles, who showed us the places round the
Stormberg kopjes where the Boers lay, and the points held
by our soldiers, of which I made a plan, and afterwards
SOUTH AFRICAN WAR
•S
enjoyed a cup of tea in his mess tent. Major A •» two
senior officer, were ^ptured by the Boers at Sl.,r,nbei». and
.m^"" "pmmanded the regiment. He had one medical
tiSf. Jlfh •""' ;•:; ""= Buschmannshoek, but no hotpi^
tent ; all the invalids or wounded on these mountain stations
were at once sent down to Sterkstrom. After ..p^",d na an
on board, and were back in the camp at 6.80. when I eneaBed
a room m the Commercial Hotel, and did the General, tith
whom I was going to dine, the compliment of putting on mv
last clean pair of cuffs. "^ » ""^
At dinner the General placed me at the head of his tabic
ects, military, medical, and scientific, in which last he greatly
mterested himself. After the meal there came in LieuCt
MacB— -, cousm ot one of our Gordon Highlanders in Aber-
deen, the provost marshal, and some others. MacB wu
killed about a year afterwards on the Maghaliesberg Mounts^
in the Transvaal. Our dinner was as plain a meal as lunch^n
had been, and moderation m eating and abstemiousness in
drmkuig were characteristic of the General and all his officers
at Sterkstrom. We broke up at 9.80, and I went on f!^t down
IlLit. "" w^^.V , ^^'""''nB the line there rang out the usual
startling Halt I Who goes there ? ' and on the word ' Friend I '
the order Advance, friend, and give the countersign I ' The
fnend waUced forward and spoke in a subdued voici the nass-
word of the night. ' Bedford.- Down went the rifk Khe
Heady, the sentinel assumed a peaceful attitude, turned on
his walk callmg out 'Pass, friend, and all 's well!' and no
father unpedunent was offered to my reaching the Commer-
cial Hotel. Colonel D E , a sensible good man and
an excellent doctor and soldier, told me I had ' dug it into
n^^^^ '" *""'."! him my opinion that his strictness in
ordermg the removal from his officers of all badges of rank was
a mistake, as the experience of the battle of the Modder River
had made it evident that some sign of rank, especially that
on the collar and shoulder, ought to be retained, for in action
men of dinerent regiments so frequently got mixed up, that
they could not know, a.id would not fully obey and follow
strangers, wh-!n they were ignorant of their rank, or indeed
whether they possessed any. I learned in my conversation
with Colonel D E— - that he held advanced opinions
*? the employment of nursing sisters in field hospitals, such
as that at Sterkstrom, where typhoid and pneumonia had to
De nursed. But others of the medical officers under him held
other opinions, mamtaining that nurses usurp the functions of
\-'\
' ;;.i .1
1
■ ,« 1
*' 1
1 ' LkL
84 REMINISCENCES OF THREE CAMPAIGNS
the trained orderliei of the R.A.M.C,, interfere with their
training and so leiien their efficiency ; that there were diffi-
culties about ' conservancy ' ; that their tenU could be aeen
through at night, and that with thr young officers lounging
about them scandals arose ; thai some of the army nurses
were ' above ' performing certain services for the men patients,
and that many of the officers preferred men to render these
special services, and would not have women about them at any
price. This rather astonished me, but I may say that these
views were quite exceptional and seemed ti be held by those
vho had had only limited personal experience of army and
other trained nurses.
I hcd hardiv come down from my room next morning when
Colonel D E rode up at 6 a.m., and having sent his
horse away, took me for a walk round the interior of the camp.
Together we visited his fever hospital, then receiving its
finishing touches, and it was time, for on the previous night
sixteen new cases of typhoid were admitted to it. Sister
R-; — had been offered £40 to £M a year to take charge, but
as in Cape Colony the usual remuneration of a .mrso was over
three gcmeas per week, she had refused the offer, and the local
nurse in Sterkstrom was to be installed until the sunmioning
of a sister from Cape Town had been sanctioned and one such
sent for. We also inspected the water supply of the camp,
which was frrm a bored well where watei- was struck at a
dep;h of seventy feet, and was good in quality and unlimited
in quantity, though it had to be pumped up by steam power.
Next v/e found the camp bakery supplying good white bread.
In our rounds we were fortunate in meeting Montgoi .ery
at the head of his famous Scouts, who wore the South AA-ican
slouched hat looped up on the left side, with a skull and cross
hones in white on the fW)nt. Montgo.nery and the orderly
he had with him had both won the Victoria Cross in endeavour-
ing to rescue the body of Lieutenant Grenfell in the cavalry-
charge at Omdurman. Montgomery was a man of great
daring ; the day before I saw him he had ridden up to a Boer
farm, leaving the one man who accompanied him posted a
hundred yards distant, and walked quietly into the house, where
there were four or five hostile Boers. They had their r/omen
and children with them, as he observed, and he concluded
that they would not begin to shoot just then, so he addressed
them, informing them that they were rebels and had arms
hidden in the house with which he knew they would fire on him
when he left, but that he would return next day and punish
them if they did so. He asked for a drink, and though they
civilly offered him refreshment, he would accept only water.
SOUTH AFRICAN WAR
h s m. ?5™"? '*^T "■' "e*spnpew that he had kept
oftheirh \1 "■""• ""P*"""" "'*" " 'kirmish thirty
thJ^t """' morning I obtained „ couple of ph tomnhs of
the Sherwood Foresters advancing in open oX to^Stack a
kopje, a. well a» a number of cha«.cteri,tic views o"™mp
After breakfasting with General Gattcre. I returned to f,,.
^■t sci,'^'S^^z.x SIS
Itl^fill'K 'f^*'"^ "'*''*'" ^"""l »nd took leave of him
Jt was with sincere regret that I said good-bye, forno one hS
f^t "'i""" deeply than did General Gata^ I have
?™ ~"~*'"8 -ny materials pauly from memory and nartlv
from notes made at the timi. f#«. t u.j u ^ ' . P""'y
t\"e^^t^re.ri„"l?"r''-^^^^^
gmnmg of h,s command with the calamitous attecW tt-'
a^:rw^^l-pe::^rar^^^^^^^^^^
pos^ss«l immense endurance a'drii^eL-r.^rqu^o^er"
rated the capacities of the soldiers under hL IS Th^
t«jops who were to carry out the ente^ris^ a?^ woru":
StoX^u"SiL^'cS ^^aru'ttal^tv'L^^^^^^^^^
exiwed, and urnved at theu- destination after daylight
■^in
86 REMINISCENCES OF THREE CAMPAIGNS
inntead of before it, in an abtiolutely exhausted condition
without h«vii,K had any food, and being ihort of water a. well!
After they had arrived at the Boer p<»ilions they wer; them
wive!, taken by surprise, u., it was the wrong part of the
entrenchments which they attacked, with the result that
ta^ numbers of then, were ouptured by fhe Dutch and the
•^st badly routed.
General Gatacre was a tall handsome soldierly man of about
nnltnn 'f J^'"* *«">''•''" yuiBe"- • ^t h.d an intensely
nervous face, and was often broodInK 'Iwply over what had
occurred, with p,.ri.Kls of silence from ubkh he roused himself,
and he pumfully felt h» inability to do mow than to act on the
defensive. The statements about his suffering from ner>e
shock xvhich had seriously told on him I hod no hesiution i„
setting down as being unreliable camp rumours, for I had had
^r^j;.^'T '•^j*'^"^"" °f «■««» affecting the brain and
nerves, and could not doubt that, though shaken bv what had
^k!^ ^T' •"'.'■^?"'f«J only »n opportunity to "prove that
l^r.t r^ "^P"'-;"' .hi, valour and talents as a leader of men
.vhich had placed him m the high position to which he had
attained. The cure for his wounded spirit would have been
round m action and an opportunity of retrievuig his niis-
GaUcre, and I believe he felt my sympathy.
XXIII
Stehkstrom to Cradock
1 HAVE repeatedly mentioned that three lines of railwav
reughly parallel to one another, ran northwards ftem t^e ^^t
to the Orange Free State, one starting from Cape TownTne
from Port Elizabeth, and one from East London, and on ihes^
hneslayrespectivelyMethuen's.French's.andGaiac«'s^ie^
f^« Hnf )i? " ^ T*'"' *" '^"'^^ *" ^^«"=h's camp, but the
Td I had^oTS *'" '^l^^^iy^ «e« held by the enemy!
and 1 had to find a way through the disturbed district as
inconspicuously as possible. For this purpose I deS to
drive across m a hired Cape cart, as being the^plan letst like v
alnlr* °^«^t*'°.»- On going down from Stekstre^t
Qiieenstown to obtain one, on Thursday the 18th January
evidences of commotion were not wanting ; the press S-
we^T4n";7.i*T'' ""i, "' "'-"l-n^e the wild^est rumo"«
^Z.r7 ^"*' "'°?t'y,'''thout foundation, such as that
If^rlt^K '"'"'f *' ^^"^ »i^" in Natal and that She
Brers hod lost over 1000 men in a recent attack on Lad^th
SOUTH AFRICAN WAR g^
There were aliu ruuioiirs adveru to th. n„» i .
become. t,ht or exuggtr^^^^^X'^,' '""■ «*'">"""B
«!"«. kept uni„foS{:5r:?Th: ,i.^'cf ''n''"''\""y
Queeii»town,lwenttotheBn«liu?i 1. .• ^" fraching
it r.. the be.t bote . thouS'^?^°If ■ j^'P* V^ J"- "'-""";
vogue, n» General G^t«o^ k j ' ,~ — '*' *""' " (frtuter
On the very d^y on wth he h^d ar? :::i*'at*''T;idT*.K'"'"''"
there wa. moved on to Queenitown th.™ . J^ u '1; u*" «=""?
to g ve him onl V « teni r^fj u 'T ' . ■ "* **'*>' bud been >le
the'cmp to°"t!re"town' ?n"'i"„^sTw ^,1^1 ~" "-" '™m
J •.. been bitten by buBu Tnd ™,m.^ S °' the nighl to
h«lf expecting to find me 111^1^ u' '°,f '"f »* '*" R^y'.
and hadThilh teSr^tU'*^-, a""vi^"i;.' t^'h"*'^ '"
bedroom and defer ivfnmi.,™ . ' ""visea hi to share my
night. He wished tfgoZh me ?' p ""^1?' '""* ^^^ t^at
wouJd wiUingly have taken h^ !? '^""='' » ^'"'nn, and I
fitted for travelling on wLtm;^t1^"*' ''"* ^^ """ P^'^'y
bi« brothers, the^ms^d^f-n^.r"^ •""«'' "'"'' »"^
Hor... were temp^rab'" t tnH *•" ™''J°'- P^ B«banf
«" to the responsibility '^ ""^ ""'*' "°* ** ""-su't'
^ttTi^n't'h'TSt^r *^fo^^?' «r'- " ''"if *"" "^^ -- --
horsehirer to who?^ iL°^ / L""' ^^""^ *" ''^ ^ Crebo,
toappTfert7i;:'t:>'etsSr«;t"c*^d'"'w'''r^
start eaily ne^Tmomfng ' ^ "' '"'^'""^ *''»' '* should
vi^'^^'TSuwLbfthe'edt; ^T'T'' "' '«'"'« ' -*-
-hogot little from mV£:ytfge"„'er' li^7'!7h^-' ^-'.
^rf^t^igl'tl^sti?nr^^^^^^^^^^^
inhabitants were D^toh^nTlr'Lt'K/'ll"'"^""*^ °' "^
them not a single n-an ^t «: ^ to hrBrit'h'T^
opmion was that <ift»i. fk. " tne Uritish : his
disarmed for othemUZt;!''''' uV^"^ ""S''* "" *« ^e
among them labL Tnd h^ ^ T"^ ^ '"'°*'"'" ^=be"i°n
langufge) o^tt^o longer to^'us'^l.^'S:,?''* ^^' <9"'<*
Hewasanuneompromifi^'TatrofXSinrev^^-H^;
.^1
if
88 REMINISCENCES OF THREE CAMPAIGNS
in the country. I doubted if many students of history could
have assented to his views.
When I rose at half -past four next morning, it was to find
that poor Grenfell had had but a sorry night ; yet I had to
leave him, there was no help for it. He resolved to remain
where he was for a few days, and secured the second bed in
my room, which was but an outhouse with its door opening to
the street, and as I was arranging to meet his wish to see my
cart drive past the open door, I forgot to settle my hotel bill,
but I afterwards remitted more than enough to cover it. On
going out I succeeded in catching the stout Mr. Crebo only
after much hunting, but eventually got a cart and driver,
and got away at seven o'clock. I never met Grenfell
again.
For the first eight or ten miles the drive to Tarkastad was
through a green grassy country, studded with thick bush, in
which the mijr"-sa trees were sometimes thirty feet in height,
with huge tho^'ns five inches long. Mr. Crebo had at my
departure produced for me a plateful of peaches, and upon
them and some biscuits I breakfasted as we drove along.
The next twenty miles were over a rising plain of grass,
absolutely devoid of any trees, its centre crowned by a large
isolated kopje ; while ranges of mountains with the charac-
teristic South African summits of peak and table encircled
it many miles away. There was no made road, only a track
formed by conveyances and horsemen ; it ran sometimes over
level plains of soft earth, full of mud holes, sand holes, and
ruts, and whenever these became too bad we drove over the
likeliest bit of the veld. The last ten miles of our route were
along a broad flat strath clothed with a sea of mimosa bush
poorer and thinner than that around Queenstown. Occasion-
ally we had to cross dry watercourses and rocky beds of
flowing streams, termed ' drifts,' down to which led natural
slopes 01. the banks by which access was obtained to a species
of ford. It had rained heavily of late, and the dry weather
which had followed had left the land hard and firm, with very
little dust, and I fancy that I saw the country at its best.
There were few if any inhabitants, and little life. An occa-
sional bird called a ' fink ' (finch), of the size and colour of a
thrush, with two long black tail feathers, twelve to fifteen
inches in length, which wavered like black ribbons in the wind,
flew overhead, and numbers of grey animals like squirrels of
the size of guinea pigs, called ' mirkatze,' wit>i bands of white
down the sides of their tails, ran along the ground, sat up like
kangaroos, and ended by popping into ant-heaps or holes
which they had burrowed into the soil ; these were, with s
SOUTH AFRICAN WAR
89
couple of springbuck which we passed within one hundred and
dUWrt ' '*"* ""' observable of the fauna of the
At loi^ intervals we stopped to have coffee at tiny hamlets,
such as Lehmannsdnft and Kleinfontein, at which latter place
I obtained from an English settler some information about
the mhabitants. This differed from the Queenstown editor's.
1 was now mformed that though almost exclusively Dutch
they were as a rule not actively disloyal, in spite of the fact
that the present war had been for years careftilly arranged,
and every Dutchman had his arms, and knew where his station
i!Z.r » u * *'°"^' "^'"8 "'«'* t° take place. The few
loyalists, however, seemed to be in no fear of any outbreak
just then, and were confident that, if armed and permitted,
they could easily keep the peace of the country, for ttey men-
tally dommated the Dutch fanners and beat them hollow at
their nfle practisings. So confident were they, that they
disagreed with the views I had heard expressed at Queenstown
and considered that it would be perfectly safe if the Dutch
wore allowed to retam their sporting rifles and cartridges,
cf n ^'i">'"'^^<' last few niUes into Tarkastad. in perfectly
still weather, there came down upon us without an instant's
wwnmg a violent tornado of wind, sweeping along the ground
and eanyu,g dust and stones before it. The (Wver was un-
prepwed for it and was immediately blinded, but the horses
^kf? to be used to such an occurrence, for they instantly
dashed round as if they were about to run away, bit the wii
features only wanted to turn their backs to the volley of
stones, and havmg accompUshed this stood stock still until it
had passed over, which it did with the same rapidity as it
had arisen ; it was presently followed by a rainstorm, which
we naiTowly escaped, and we reached the Molteno Hotel at
Tarkastad, where I washed, dined, and arranged with a Mr
Mock to hire me a cart to drive me the remaining fifty miles
to Cradock for the sum of £4. '
H^T^f^.tT'" * 80od many Boers gathered in the Molteno
Hotel; they were evidently unfriendly, some of them intoxi-
t^I D ^ r " ^e-narks were made about me and my wearing
the Red Cross, which though spoken in the ' Taal ' I managed
to understand from my knowledge of European Dutch. Thev
did not actively mterfere with me. however, and I should have
been comfortable enough had I not, when I retired to bed, had
to hold It like a besieged fort against strong investing cohorts
of bugs, who stormed it and attacked me whenever n7y candle
went out or I fell into a short nap.
I was to have been called at 4.80, as the cart was promised
11; ifjH
■I ill
^1H'l
'irK
;H\
! i
t
90 REMINISCENCES OF THREE CAMPAIGNS
to be in readiness at five o'clock, but found it was 4.45 when
I awoke with a start. Rising hastily I dressed, washed, suaved,
and was in readiness at the appointed hour, having swallowed
some dry biscuits, but no cart was to be si'cn, no person was
awake, and there was not even my bill ready. I rooted out
the cart, left what I thought was sufficient to clear my score,
and had just started, when one of Mr. Molteno's assistants
came running after us to demand an ertra sum, which was
handed to him. In the previous evening Mr. Molteno had
spoken a good deal with me, and been profuse in his expressions
of desire ' to do anything in the country's cause,' but he seemed
to me to be professing too much, and I certainly could not
admire the kind of company in his hotel.
While to the east of Tarkastad the land was what was
known as sweet grass veld, towards the west, on the Cradock
side, it is Karoo Desert. The road therefore ran over great
expanses, many miles in extent, of arid heathy levels, or
traversed picturesque gullies through the mountains and hills
bordering the flats, until it brought us to a high broad plateau
from which it dipped steeply down to the pretty town of
Cradock, nestling among trees at the bottom of a narrow
valley that ran for a long distance from north to south through
the country. It was a good road as compared with that from
Queenstown to Tarkastad, being engineered and provided with
cuttings, embankments, and bridges, so the drive, though long,
was not tiresome or even uninteresting. The koraan, a bird
like grouse, the mirkatze, lizards brown and green, and many
sorts of birds, were constantly met with and gave life to the
loneliest parts. At one time, on a great plain, we passed close
to a herd of some fifty springbuck, and ostriches were verj'
numerous ; indeed on one occasion a flock of more than a
hundred of these birds, dusting themselves in the hot sand,
blocked our road, and were so tame that some of them did not
rise even when we drove past them within two yards. There
were intervals for refreshment ; breakfast I got at Klipkraal,
and midday coffee at Dwingfontein, a farm belonging to
Mr. J. D. Duplessis— called Plessey— a kind and intelligent
Dutchman, and at both of these stopping-places the talk ran
much upon a giantconvoy of two hundred wagons and ox-teams
which had passed through to an unknown destination ;' there
was little difficulty in forming the surmise that they were the
transport wagons furnished to General Kelly Kenny's column.
"The drivers of these wagons, like people of that class in all
times and lands, were behaving lawlessly. steaUng the hens
and sucking pi^j, injuring fences and using them for fuel at
their bivouacs, etc., and refusing the usual payment of a
SOUTH AFRICAN WAR ,,
shaiing a day per wagon for the privilege of pasturiiw their
S,"to?oW V ffl T ^* '"'y ^"' &.veCenT7a^^^
t™f.T/ f^ herdsman went before the district nZis-
trate and complained that the wagoners had, durinc his
thTt th^tthT';'"*"*'^ '°r;"y ^ S-*'""* *''«^ conviction
tnat the Dutch residents as a whole, with the exception of the
^°^i^^nr"/.^*-^'°^''' ^'" *"" ^«" ^'tisfi^ w"th Se
government of the a,untry under the British rule to be ex-
cerfmgly desirous of any change. Most of them were kind
or other requuements, and were quite frank in expressine
of theTT'- ^"V^^"""! tobelittledoubtthataiLjori??
had Z'^'T '«'"?«""y' *°"W have risen in rebellion
had the Boers from the Transvaal and Orange Free State
the^e"^ouV^^ W '""f^ tl'e P„.vince, though even then
W tl,^~ have been a large minority undesirous of this;
but there was nothmg resembling race hatred between the
he Bri«°,rh r ' ''"'^- *'"'■'" 7\" ^'"^ ^^'^ '°"8 'n t°"<=h with
,™,^»i w- .^'T^^^f "T °^ ^^^ advantages of their just and
sympathetic Hile. and desired no change which might have
been for anything but the better.
V- i
XXIV
COLESBERO
^l^J^'T.t'^lV^ ^'°"^^y ^"^^ «* ^™'l°«''- where I was on the
r^^lh if ' *'"nr"''"y 'i""^ *'•''''• "^ "P *"*» the middle
of South Africa. Its coastal end was at Port Elizabeth and
.t went right up passing Cradock to Rensburg.Xe Reach
was facing the Boers who were at Colesberg, and N^uwS,rt
was half-way up this line. There had teen a bmnK
Queenstown from Cradock through Tarkastad, and that wa^
was abandoned owmg to the disturbed state of the distrct.
^InW?T"^' "^""^ "^"^ """^ '^^""ty ■""« north of
Cradock the line gave off another branch westwards to De Aar
on the Cape Town-Kimberiey line, and by it regular traffic
was gomg on between Port Elizabeth and Cape To^. Alon^
the Cradock-Naauwport rail General KelirKenny's forc^
whoh r^.n "P, '° "'"^""^ °' support'^Genera^ FrenS
rL Ki:^'^ '" «° "" *° «™^*^« *° -« *••« »*«*^ "^
Arriving at Cradock, inquiry elicited that there was a train
Iri '■
iPI
I
i : .,
■ 1 'j|
t
"*•'':
!'1' ^
"'!:^
If
92 REMINISCENCES OF THREE CAMPAIGNS
^,?^^°? Elizabeth to Cape Town passing about six, which
could ttke me to Naauwport, but from there to Rensburu
there was no certainty of transport. I therefore telegraphed
to U>lonel G , the principal medical officer at Naauwport,
begging hmi to give me a comer to lie down in until there was
some tram gomg to Rensburg. Colonel G , who afterwards
1 tnmk became director-general, was the medical officer who
^me along with us in the steamer from Cape Town to Port
Elizabeth, and had coldly avoided me in the company of
General Kelly Kenny, and as I afterwaids found reason to
believe, was he who had sent the P.M.O. at Cape Town a
comptemt as to my wearing khaki clothing, a garb most in-
nocently assumed on my part, as : had always worn it in the
Soudan, and hitherto no one had seen anything unusual in
my domg so. In ignorance that I had offended his suscepti-
bilities, I sent my request for shelter, never doubting that he
would be pleased to comply with it; and when it had been
despatched, I lunched at the station, got a pass to Rensburg
from Major K— - K and sat down to write up my notes
I was muneduitely accosted by the Government engineer of
the raUway Mr. MuUer, who invited me to visit his bungalow
across the lines, and after he had given me a welcome bath,
his wife kmdly provided me with a cup of tea.
The town was garrisoned by the local volunteers, whose
rommander. Captain S-—, entered into conversation and
remmded me that he had once visited Aberdeen and attended
some of my operations in the Aberdeen Infirmary
There was nothing eventful in the journey to Naauwport,
where the tram arrived at 11.80 p.m., and where I was left t<i
nnd out that G— — had paid no attention to my request for
accommodation. That however mattered little to me. and as
the benches m the station were all filled with sleeping soldiers
I lay down on the platform to pass the night, when Ueutenant
n^~~ • ™,K°y«' Engmeers, who was the Railway Staff
?^"^'J"l^^T™!-*° "! '^°''" '"" ^^ ™°'°' «"<! was almost
offended when I objected to taking possession of his own bed.
1 had to yield, and turned in to a splendid sleep from midnight
until four, and when I awoke once or twice, there was my
host himself lyuig on the bare boards. It was a piece of
extraordmary kindness to have shown to an unknown
stranger.
The train for Rensburg. nominally timed to leave at five,
did not start until half-past six; it oontaine-- only a few
soldiers and wme newspaper correspondents its course was
over typical Karoo desert untU, after a journey of two hours.
It passed a large camp of the Suffolks at Arundel, and stopped
SOUTH AFRICAN WAR ,3
allthe camp and the actions wKich were going on, were visAte
and I was able to make a survey of the whole d is riet and the
I'll
IH
Ill
ii
I
94 REMINISCENCES OF THREE CAMPAIGNS
who were then busy wrecking and looting it — b proreie which
we watched through our binoculars.
The medical staff at Rensburg were doing excellent work.
There were two field hospitals and two bearer companies ;
one pair was distributed over the extensive front, a section
being at Slingersfontein, ten miles to the east of the camp, and
another even farther away, seven miles beyond that. The
work was mostly surgical, only one case of typhoid being in
hospital at the date of my visit. One dreadful case of amputa-
tion at the hip joint, magnificently managed, was on the way
to recovery under the care of Captain P . It was dis-
appointing to find that such officers were so badly provided in
some respects. They had no serums, and no operation tahli
beyond the army panniers. The packets of first dressings
were somewhat rude affairs, and had been coarsely made up
by a firm in Cape Town ; ai d the two railway ambulance cars
they possessed, though most cleverly fitted up on trucks by
Major A , were, as may be imagined, but poor substitutes
for properly constructed cars, for I travelled down by the
train on which they were running, and the journey in them was
a rough experience for invalid or injured soldiers. An ambu-
lance train for which Colonel D had telegraphed had been
refused to him on account of the expense.
After I had seen all the medical arrangements, and had a
long conversation with Colonel D , whose original distrust
of me had worn off, about the functions of his bearer companies
in action, and about some very interesting personal experiences
of his own at Jan Batai in the Tirah Campaign, where he had
safely transported and fed thirty-five cases of typhoid fever
for five days on doolies, without a single one dying or having
haemorrhage on the way, I saw that there was nothing further
to detain me in Rensburg, and arranged to leave it by the
train carrying down the patients to De Aar and Cape Town,
■"/here the base hospitals for General French's troops were
situated.
I witnessed the transference of the patients into their car-
riages and obtained accommodation fo.- myself in the guard's
van. It was a rough ride, and the van was crowded with
newspaper correspondents, so I left it at Naauwport, and
waited for the evening tra in from Port Elizabeth to Cape Town,
which passed at 11.80 at night. As already said. General
Kelly Kenny's army were now in possession of Naauwport.
When I awoke in the morning, it was almost time to obtain
breakfast at Victoria Road, where we were again on the
western lii'e, running down for Cape Town.
SOUTH AFRICAN WAR
99
XXV
Medical Affairs about Cape Town
Having thus vUited aU the cohmrns except thit which wa.
opejatmg m Natal under General Buller. my ne"S„ ^
J£ al^ti^X.*"' ""1? "y ™P«»»" was that most of
^K^K J Kimberley, I resolved to consult Lord Hoberts,
who had now amved in Cape Town. I accordingly caUed on
him at hui quarters in 55 Graves Stwet, and wafadTis^ by
Mitels a^S l°tU^°K"''?*'7"'*!r« '" t''^ meant^mfth^
T^!?n D u J^**"" subjects of medical interest about Cane
?h^see^°^nd\.*' '"^f"t«^ in my account of the cam^
tr^uS^iTih *"'"*'°" °* '•'' '"^*""^ ^""'^ I hTd
folfow.S°" f^uni ^"^"'.^j.^hief principal medical officer.
™i?r?' ^^ 'V™ ^"«"*iy P»''te' and though he wa^
quite disengaged he kept me waiting for a very teng tta^
before receivmg me. Ahnost his first remark was to ask tf I
ZaftW T, """L^Kes of army rank or sel^f^ Mytp, J
was that I claimed and wore no badges of rank hift tw
I thought I was justified in wearing uSki aS tL rihi^
ment^^^Vh"'* '^'^"'"y *? » ^tudy of the medical ^n^!
?^^!fl, f »"""? """^ °*" "^"^^ there. I shalldteX
th^ chapter to .n description of these experiences, and foUow
It up by another m which I shall sum up. as far as 1^^
the mipressions received and the conclusions dra«Ti 4m th«n'
and"bll'^'tth^''""f''°*^'"''"y°^"y'^-i^^^^^^
h^j^ • ^^^ information up to date about what
^n^l" *n ""• • ^y °''* fellow-student Sir WiUia^ Stok^
of Dublm had amved to serve as one of the army mS
consulting surgeons, and our meeting was a joyful™ e E
av«^ Hrn« i *? Bodyguard to come and dine with me
rX mS Dr h' 'T"^ ""^*"S """ °" experien^
«^C*^e^W^o.,^^l^^erS- ^J?^-"i^
^^^^ ^"^^ *° *•»« Boers. From them I l^rf
the fall history of that ill.&ted expedition. sSidcsXte
two Bnt»h members, ite male staff .insisted of^tch S
< IH
t'W !
.: « »
fill ,
i
96 REMINISCENCES OF THREE CAMPAIGNS
Afriouis, bU of them good fighting maUrial, but mo«tly
incapable* t.s regarded medical aervice. When the hospital
arrived at the Cape and had been refuged permission to pass
through to the Transvaal, its members went round the ooast
by steamer to endeavour to make their way by Delagoa
Bay in Portuguese territory. At Natal the officer in com-
mand of naval matters placed a sentry over them and per-
mitted none of them to land. Up to then matters had on
the whole gone harmoniously enough among them, the Dutch
element thrusting Dr. G- into prominence as their leader ;
though at Cape Town one of them. Dr. Nietbling, had held
communications with the Dutch there without consulting
Dr. G , and from that time the British members began to
be left out in the cold. After they had left Durban K-r
Lorenzo Marques, the Dutch members indicatec^. to Dr. G — —
that he was only a subordinate, and when they arrived in
Delagoa Bay it was intimated to them that the Transvaal
declined to receive them, and that there were no woimded for
them to attend to. Dr. Ni.:thling wrote from there to Pretoria
and got a pass to go there to confer, and a few days later the
Dut(£ members of the party, including one nurse of doubtful
English nationality, also went off into the Transvaal, taking
with them the whole ambulance outfit. G and Johnson
returned to Natal, where they were not well received by the
authorities and the local newspapers, the latter publishuig
articles against them, and the former refusing their offers of
service and dealing somewhat harshly with them. I am glad
to add that after some delay at Cape Town they obtained their
desire of entering the British medical service. Dr. C doing
good work at De Aar, and Allan Johnson serving in the
R.A.M.C, previous to his lamented death from typhoid fever
at Bloemfoii^^in.
On a visit to the Red Cross Depot in Parliament House, 1
found plenty of useful stores accumulated there, but a want
of proper organisation for their distribution ; they might almost
as well have been left in England for all the use they were in
Africa. I conjectured that the ideals of the Red Cross that all
their work should be done by unpaid volunteers paralysed the
hands of Mr. P who had charge of that department. I
shall in my next chapter give a personal instance of how the
usefuhiess of the Red Cross was frustrated by the army
medical service.
The Good Hope Society was introduced to my notice by
Dr. David Gill, a former class-fellow, then Astronomer Royal
at Cape Town. It was originated to provide luxuries and
cor. brts for the sick and wounded, but I was informed that
SOUTH AFRICAN WAR
97
the attitude adopted towaids it by the Red Cross Commissioner,
Colonel y , and by the R.A.M.C., had chilled their hopes
of being of much service, and I found them deeply concerned
to find their benevolent intentions being rendered futile.
They had collected funds to the amount of £8000, of which
they had already expe-ided half; they had many women anxious
to nurse, though perh^s only a limited number of them were
trained and fully qualified, and of these no use was being made
as far as I could learn. On the afternoon of the 2'«th of
January I attended a meeting of the Society, and heard
addresses by members who reported upon the work of the
association. What I there learned convinced me that, except
in a few very important directions, their work was rendered
of almost no avail by the unspoken but clearly shown jealousy
and even hostility of the army medical department. It was
plainly most galling to that body of warmly patriotic Britons
and Colonists that their earnest efforts to place their services
and wealth at the disposal of our country should have met
with so cbillin^ a reception. All the best of the British resi-
dents were oresent at the meeting and in sympathy with its
objects, and it was deplorable to realise that their endeavours
for the good of the motherland were being frustrated by those
who represented the British Government.
At a luncheon at Groote Schuur, Cecil Rhodes's country
house, I made the ricquaintance of some of the ladies and
gentlemen who were most a-rtively interesting themselves in
the voluntary aid institutions connected with the war, and
heard much about their plans and the difficulties which they
were encountering, and on the same afternoon I visited the
Portland Hospital, which had been originated by private
benevolence in England, greatly aided by funds presented by
Lord Portland, after whom it was named ; it was under the
surgical charge of Mr. Bowlby of St. Bartholomew's Hospital,
though an army medical officer was nominally over him. It
would have been hard, in those days, to have imagined a more
perfectly equipped military hospital, and its personnel was an
ideal one ; in fact, though I made many inquiries, I could not
discover that there was a single thing wanting to make it
absolutely perfect, except an electric bone-drill. It served as
a sort of annexe to the No. 8 Military Hospital at Rondebosch,
from which it was only separated by an unfenced road.
Not far distant was the Claremont Sanatorium, which was
a portion of a vegetarian hydropathic establishment hired
by the army medical department from the Seventh Advent
Sect, and was used for convalescent or slightly wounded
officers ; in no way did I find it particularly remarkable.
'f I !
i 'M
^''»:i
qS REMINISCENCES OF THREE CAMPAIGNS
The district where these institutions lay vas very beautiful,
and rich with fine woods of pine and oak, with many villas
of the wealthy and farms and houses of the middle classes.
It compared well with England in the size of its forest trees,
while Scotland in this respect was nowhere in comparison.
Cecil Rhudes's house and grounds at Groote Schuur were
exquisite, but I had not time to do them justice. Rhodes
was not there at the time of my visit, being one of the besieged
in Kimberley.
On a separate ucco sion I paid a visit to the Military Hospital
at Wynberg, after having said my last farewell to my old
comrade Sir William Stokes, who was to leavt at midday for
Natal, where he soon afterwards died ; he was looking very
ill when we parted, and I was grieved that he should go,
but no choice was allowed to him. A train leaving Cape
Town took me in half an hour to Wynberg station, from
which the hospital was three-quarters of a mile distant
The surroundings of the village and hospital of Wynberg
were beautiful, both being pUnted down amid forests of
fine trees resembling Scots i&s, but more naked in appear-
ance, and around and underneath then throve thickets
of red and white oleanders, mimosas, peaches, apricots, and
all manner of fruit trees, often covered with the climbing
passion-flower. The place was laden with flowers and fruit,
and was variegated by patches of garden, grass, Indian com,
bamboo, etc. Even here, however, aridity underlay the rich
vegetation, giving to a British eye the idea of drought rather
than of moist succulerce. After ralking through the village
and climbing a slight hill, I found the hospitals situated on
the top of the latter. There were two of them, the first,
designated No. 1, under the charge of my old class-mate and
friend of the Soudan, Dr. Antonisz ; the second, called No. 2,
under Dr. Duke. I was taken over No. 1, which consisted of
a series of wooden pavilions, and was formerly a station and
barracks used by the troops, until it was vacated and devoted
to medical purposes at the commencement of the war. The
Hospital No. 2, in contact with No. 1, consisted of a number
of square tents and lay a little to the southward. The chief
ofQcer^> were army surgeons, and the care of the patients
occupying the pavilions was entrusted to a number of civil
surgeons engaged for the purpose, many of them being ex-
ceptionally capable men, house surgeons from London, Bath,
the Colony, etc., and their work was of a high class indeed.
These sui'geous were employed because at that period the
R.A.M.C. could not itself furnish the needed men, for I was
informed that there were only eight R.A.M.C. officers remain-
SOUTH AFRICAN WAR ^
ing in BriUin. The wooden hospiUl building., formerly
banack room., would have made g-ood airy waidt but for
certain drawbaclu inherent in old ivooden houses in luch a
clunate. They were kept beautifully tidy and nice by the
•rmy nuriuig sisters, all the notes of the cases were well
written up, the temperature charts were adequately kept, and
so forth. A number of ladies from outside were pennitted
to visit and look afUr the sick and wounded, to bring them
fruit and flowers and tobacco, and to entertain them with
concerts. The operation theatre was made of iron, n-inted
white with Aspmall's enamel ; It was all very plain, i a the
irrigation and sterilising arrHngeneiits were upparently rather
msufflcient, though possibly adequate to the wVrk eaiVied on
One couM not but miss, howev. i, in a hospital where Britain's
best were bemg treated, el. 1 1 ic saws and drills, etc., antitoxin
serums, and a bacteriological department. The pavUions
were so infestfd with bugs that the feet of the beds had to be
put in cans of kerosene, and curtains, uominallyfor mosquitoes
.u u ?"* u ^?? P'J"""* ^''' ''"8» dropping from the roSfs int^
the beds, had to be used over all the patiente. I could not
hear of any efficient attempts being made to eradicate these
peste. but could not ask too many questions, as my position
was a delicate one. Besides the patients, who were interestina
from a surgeon s point of view, there were many there who
w.;re notable on their own account, among those uhom I
specially remember being the Boer General Pretorius, whose
r NUr u "l"'"^ amputation for a gunshot injury.
General Wauchope's nephew, who had been w. unded in many
places by the side ol' his chief at Magersfoiitein, and Major
nrT'»f!!!f™D"*"'''°^u'"^"™^ ''"^^ ^ 'wd consulted
At « r,5'T- ^^ general impression which I formed
of the No. 1 Wynberg Hospital was that its staff had done
everjthingm their power to make it a flrst-class hospital, and
had succeeded m domg so except where the department had
failed to provide tliem sufficiently with what they required
The Prwcm of JFofe* hospital ship, under the command
of Major M-—, which I visited on the 80th January, was,
1 must frankly confess, a disappointment. With the sole
exception of the installation of electric fans, she was inferior
m every respect, so far as I could judge, to the hospital ship
Gar^ai which was sent out to Suakin in the Soudan War^
fliteen years earlier.
I saw almost nothing personally of the operations of the
Ketugees Committee, which administered the £160 000 sub
scribed m London to the Lord Mayor's Refugee Fund ; but
from several sources I learned a good deal about its work It
I <l),
( l!
'i -I
^ ■11
• t
: 1
100 REMINISCENCES OF THREE CAMPAIGNS
WM indeed a valuable agency, and I had myself leen how wre
wai the need for it which exiited among the rehigeei. House*,
campii, tents, and other Bccommodatiun were provided for these
destituU persons ut different parts of the territories, such as
at Sea Point and Simon's Bay near Cape Town, and at Queens-
town. Port Elizabeth, East London, Durban, and Pietermaritx-
burg. The distress was on the increase, in proportion as the
exiguous resources of the refugees diminished, and the funds
were approaching exhaustion, though the greatest economv
was exercised in their distribution, one shilling a day only
being granted to adults and sixpence to children. It was one
of the few organisations which seemed to be unhampered by
official red tape. '
I received authorisation to visit the Dutch prisoners of war
at Simon's Buy. Taking the midday train ttom Cape Town
to Simon's Town. T was carried past the fertile districts of
Kondebosch and ' nberg, and passed into the valley on the
eastern side of Tauic Mountain, where the wild hills with
ragged tops and precipitous sides recalled to mind the Gram-
pians of the Clova Valley in Forfarshire, und presently, passing
u freshwater lake which reminded me of my own Loch Oavan,
fringed with reeds and rushes, we emerged on the seashore at
the head cf False Bay, where the great expanse of cobalt-blue
woler barre<l with green of a pale hue. enclosed in a spacious
bay, seemed to the eye some ten miles long by Ave broad.
It was waled roimd with dry rugged mountains resembling
enormous cinders, with the white waves breaking ut their feet
and th> sea breezes playing on reaches of white sand as far as
vision extended. We run along the western side of this gulf
finding little watering-pla<es nestling here and there amonc
shady trees, ard separated by deep bays of blue-green sea and
broad while .sands und sandhills, which the railway crosses as
if washing its wheels in the playing waves, until at two o'clock
it ended at Simon's Town, the last und largest of these water-
ing-places. Simon's Town fringed Simon's Buy, i semi-lunar
arm of False Bay, and in the bay were lying seven cruisers
three or four gunboats, und two or three merchantmen. Her
Majesty's Transport No. 21, the Catalonia, wher« the Dutch
prisoners were confined, was anchored a mile or so from the
shore, with small two-sailed lugger-rigged boats from the
men-of-war cruising round and round her as patrols— a dutv
which I was informed they continued constantly to dischaiBc
by day and night. A walk of half an hour brought me to the
Town Pier, where I hired a sailing boat to take me to the
Cataiania, await me there, and bring me bock, for the sum of
seven shillings. Visits to the prisoners were permitted on
SOUTH AFRICAN WAR ,o,
I!l!f1f'*"'" ^ ♦•'•''••'' between the h..Mni .,f 3.ao m.d i p.m
.We n«»ni"Ji' '"" *"' '"T"' •""'" "»"" » climbed up t^
mHi^ur «" *.'»V~"'«« rifles „nd fixed b«y.,net?^n"il"he
militury offlcer in charge could be «,mmnni<ited with On
tooking round! could see that the Catalonia «n7«n „|d liner
of po.».bly 4000 ton,, with ample room for the 440 pZoZl
IrSI^e h/,n "■" ''""B'nK "U' f^P". 1100 pen»n. were "id
to have been accommodated on board of her without undue
to the offlce. and had a conversation with the offlcer in
command and the cen«,r, after which intenx,gatory^^nd a
™mLil J "' JP"™''- "°t". «nd papers, us well » my
^S^m" w r'''t'"t°sh. were not takS from me, and any
Ts relv:^''\f KP*™'"i?«u"'« ^ '^ '^' "hole of the vesL^
a^riJ^TX^' J' happened that I was the earliest visitor to
arnve that day, but while we were conversing, others, friends ^f
JTT"'- '"'?'? "P "' *«"-«ives, brothers, andSons
t": whi^h?!.*"'' '"'"" °1" ^y ""• '"*" »P~i«l """ns on deck!
Ind hLl5 '^\P"^?"«" they had come tS visit were brought
and half an hour's conv-rsation was granted to each in the
of ThT »» h'1"''°.:1"'''""~? '^' languageTmade u«
^iol« ^ ''5'''."8 '^''" """'hed to prevent forbidden
^d1^ le 'l^^/'^ over Amongst thcs^ were stimulants
the Mnsor. ''*^*" '^ ^°^ *^'* ""' "*" '""""^ "^•'^ ^^X
Dr^vrsferXr/r- W 'Jf""'*" 'h« medical attendant,
hI" h^TL. ^'*°''?^ *° 'how me over the whole vessel
rrin^f ^" ^ practitioner in the town of Douglas, Wwt
^/iL'.? :]'^iv°"'l'" " '"y"' ~'°"'''* had been menafed by the
rebels and Free Staters ; by his own account his life had even
BelmnlTf ^tPTi "^^^ ^°'°"*' ^"'her's expedition f^,^
ioSo^t'^rn" mT "'""• '""«•'' "^^ ""•* '''^ °''-
PWkP"TI" "^"^ of various nationalities, Dutch. Gennans
French, and Swedes, with all of whom the doctor waVable to
wlZT"?** ?**">' ^^**Pt i" *he case of thTCch, with
adC ^ "v ^'"^?'«H™lty. Nearly all of them whom I
addressed sD„ke English well, but there were a few of The
Boers froiu !he remoter districts who, I found, Imew onlv
t^ .T n^""' ' '*'''«^ °' the Dutch ton^e I ^w aU
except the German Colonel Shiel, who was wrHing lett^s and
whom therefore I declined to disturb. The pSe" were a
I I !
il
I' ' *.i
■ 11!;
Hi it
i
:|
;
Pi
loa REMINISCENCES OF THREE CAMPAIGNS
fine, well-built, jnlly set of men on the whole, who smiled and
spoke freely to i..d, and seemed giants in height and strength
alongside of the small sentries who walked among them with
loaded rifles and fixed bayonets. One or two of the Boers,
generally the younger ones, were sour, evil-looking fellows,
but the others were a good set. Almost all wore beards.
They had to rise at six in the morning and go to bed at nine,
but some slept on deck for the greater part of the day as well.
They had permission during the day to go up on the main-deck,
or even on the upper deck, excepting in certain roped -off parts
reserved for the garrisoning officers and men, of whom there
were as I guessed only some forty. The captives sauntered
about, conversed, played at various games, one of which was a
sort of draughts, smoked on the upper deck ; and fishing was
evidently a favourite occupation among them, for at every four
feet or so on the bulwarks there were fishing lines out, and at
the end of each was a prisoner baiting his big hook with a piece
of mackerel flesh, and making captures of numbers of fine sport-
ing salmon-shaped fish of four or five pounds weight, which
they called ' yellow tails ' from the lemon tint of their slender
terminations, the bodies being of a silvery -green colour, and
they were said to be capital eating. The sport was evidently
good and popular, for two of the crew were similarly engaged in
a dinghy moored astern, and my two boatmen had caught half
a dozen when I returned to them to go ashore. Some among
the prisoners who had held officer's rank were accommodated in
state-rooms, two occupying each, and such had their own little
mess-room. The men slept in hammocks between decks.
The table arrangements were good ; so also were the lavatories ;
and everything rfas clean and nice. The sick bay, where there
were twelve patients, was mostly required by the Boers who
came from the High Veld, as these suffered from the motion
of the sea whej it was rough, as well as from influenzas and
coughs, and two of the iiunates whom I saw were rather
seriously ill. No temperature records were being kept. I
was told that it was very common for the prisoners to indulge
in surfeits of the cakes and rich eatables which were supplied
to them by their friends, and these along with the deprivation
of their accustomed exercise induced much indigestion and
stomach complaints. After everything had been shown me,
I bade good-bye to Dr. Visser, took my boat, went ashore
again, and as there was an hour to spare before the train left,
I employed it in walking southwards along the coast for a
couple of miles to see the prisoners' camp which was being
prepared for them ashore, and into which they were to be
transferred in a day or two. It was finely situated on a sunny
SOUTH AFRICAN WAR
103
headland projecting into the sea belo* the naval battery and
magazines, on a cleared field of some four or five acres, where
a square enclosure was formed by two fences, an inner one
five feet high of wire netting, and an outer one fifteen feet
distant of close barbed wire seven feet in height. An iron
standard at one comer supplied the support for an arc light
for nocturnal illumination. The enclosed area contained bell
tents for the prisoners, as well as ample recreation space.
Adjacent to it on the south were the tents of the military
guardians.
"Hiough it was a matter quite aside from military questions,
1 chanced to discover that a formei pupil. Dr. Sinclair Black,
was in charge of the Leper Community on Robben Island,
and embraced the opportunity of an invitation from him to
visit this interesting spot, and Mr. Allan Johnson accompanied
me. The tiny steamer which plies to the island left the har-
bour of Cape Town at half-past nine in the morning, and its
deck was piled high with— of all things in the world— quan-
tities of ginger beer for the Robben Islanders. There must
have been ten or twelve thousand bottles there. It seemed
that every patient received one bottle a day, and many of
them purchased more, which accounted for the large quantity.
An hour's rough sailing brought us near the low flat piece of
limestone overspread with sand which constituted the island,
and we cast anchor a few hundred yards from a wooden jetty,
whence a whaleboat rowed by four brown boys in white suits
all stamped over with the broad arrow, because they were
convicts, came pulling out with a long rope trailing behind.
We entered the boat and were rowed to the jetty, while the
long rope was left in order that by its means a big barge should
be drawn out to the steamer in which to land the goods and the
rest of the passengers.
On landing we were presented to Mr. Pearce, the Command-
ant, and to Drs. Atherstone and Mitchell, the latter of whom
was the pathologist of the island.
The island was somewhat elliptical in outline, lay five miles
distant from the shore, was about three miles long by one
broad, and consisted of a chalky rock resembling noral, which
was nowhere more than fifty or sixty feet above the level of
the sea. Across its centre, at its narrowest diameter, a fence
bisected the island and divided off the northern half on which
the lepers lived. At our landing-place on the southern part
we found a little townlet of houses and sheds, and behind it,
just above the jetty, a large lighthouse. The townlet con-
tained a convict station, like a prison, with accommodation for
the police in charge. Both police and convicts were well
I
HI
i 1
i|
i'» i'f
: i
' ■■ i
if ^ ;■
• 1 ♦
"I
If' *[
( ■ , •
104 RKMINISCENCES OF THREE CAMPAIGNS
lodged, well fed, uiid appeared to be happy and contented.
All the convicts wore the white suit bespangled with the broad
arrow, and the warders who watched over them carried rifles,
which, however, I was told were not loaded ; and the discipline,
though military, was not very hard. Indeed many of the
convicts were hardly what one would call criminals, but only
illicit diamond buyers and such like. The himdred convicts
who were there at our visit were well treated, and had nice
rooms and wards, clean sleeping quarters, good accommodation
for the sick, good airing grounds, and open-air employment
over all the island.
From the village a small tramway ran along the eastern
beach to the leper settlement, which consisted of two parts, a
male and a female, divided from one another by a fence. Each
of these parts possessed n scries of wooden pavilions like hos-
pital wards, with balnmies in front. Some of the wards which
they contained were large, 120 by 80 feet, others were small
private rooms for the better classes. Most of the patients, of
whom there were five or six hun>!rcd, were blacks, bi i there
were a few Dutch and other whites, and they were believed
to include all the lepers in Cape Colony, except a few who could
afford to isolate themselves to the satisfoction of the authori-
ties. It was admitted that the system of dealing with the
lepers, however, wn . as yet a little lax.
The lepers for the most part appeared to be happy and con-
tented ; there was little to be seen that was loathsome or
repulsive, and there were a good many children, even babies,
some of whom had been born on the island of leprous parents
and were free from disease. There were, it is tnie, maimed
people crawling about, and deformed hands and feet were
common, but there was little even in them to shock a visitor.
Those who had sores, or who required dressings, were kept in
wards by themselves, and were well and neatly dressed by
male or female ottendants. The others, whose skin was un-
broken, though they may have had only stumps of arms or
legs, were given work, which they often did very cleverly.
One woman who had no hands was sewing neat patchwork,
holding the needle between her two stumps, and a boy with
no hands was doing some quite tidy penmanship. Much
useful work, such as scrubbing and cleaning, was done by the
lepers, who were paid for their services, about £1000 a year
being thus earned by the patients.
The different forms of the disease were grouped into different
wards ; the tubercular form, with knobbed checks and noses,
by themselves ; as were, on the other hand, the paralytic forms
with twisted £aces. A few cures were obtained. At the time
SOUTH AFRICAN WAR
"05
^LTf^/"J' *'?*'*■ T"* *'«*''"" «»'" ''ho *"e cured * ,d
awaiting dismissal, but such a result is rare. Every sort of
wTh^ 7"' ^'"'^n'i'f' °i •""* "'""^y ^'" experimented
the cur« rj; 7.'"f' t' '"?""""" *"' *"«»" °' non-existent :
the cures seemed to take place quite spontaneously.
Among my notes I find a few additional facts which may
™XwT'' '"*r''*- ^^ '"'"'«"'' ''«'^« »"d buildings were
presided over by an excellent matron, and many ladies from
^^JZ" '"♦fr*«^ themselves in her work and came f« visi?
wi?h JTv h ' It *'"^?rf" ''"8ht, tidy, and ornamented
with gay shawls, flowers, little feminine decorations, pictures
etc. ^ the wards of the male patients were not so attractive.
^Ud Lit *°''lthat those of this sex were as a rule indole,^
and careless about keeping their rooms nicely. There were
several churches for the lepers, pretty buildings conUin"g
harmoniums ; and tl^re was a mortuary and a little cemetei^t^
where all manner of tombstones, varying from the poorest
menjOTials up to handsome crosses and headstones, ^ked
me graves.
nJ!Z!^ °^ *i!f '"P"! r^ 8ood J their drinking water was
obtnmed from the rainfall ; but four or five windmills were
w»T.?'"i? P^ ^ ^"^ /^ '"'"''''"h water from wells, und t his
was used for houst....ld purposes. The patients amused them-
selves in various ways, playing games such as football, and
nshing; and on such occasions as the New Year they had
races and other festivities in which they took much pleasure
wi?h"I'"„i ^''''"'1! "/'' "'..'""' ^'- »'"<=''• I ^^^ presented
with a photograph of an object which I thought was a rude
^^n-rJiHT" "i*^"* "'t^'' "^ fr»P"ents of drift-wood
constructed by some lepers who on one occasion attempted to
^f^M" 'V*^?"" ^^^ "°"^hern end of the island. It sank
before they had got far away.
When luncheon was over, we were conducted over the rest
tK,I^l"j"''j visited the part where the criminal lunatics,
!w il u"^!'" """"her, were detained, and found it admir-
able. It had been attempted to plant the island with eucalyp-
Z t^Jl 1- V*^'' ''" V'f '*"'"8 "^ ^'"''^ ^^--^ inimical to
the growth of trees, and the aspect of the island was one of
wretchea barrenness, though we were assured that when the
rains came a few wet„s later it would become fresh and green,
and be gay with the flowers of many spring bulbs. Even as
^st^. " ^^^ """^ """'*' ^^""^^ *° ""^ sufficient
stJ^mr^T'^J"/"''^ '^°'^" *" *he afternoon by the little
steamer ; it phei four times a week to and from the mainland,
and as the island is situated in the open Atlantic just beyond
■' I
M
; I
i I
I I
P !■ !
' , -1 . 1 :
i :"
Mil
I
106 REMINISCENCES OF THREE CAMPAIGNS
the protection of Table Bay, the traniit is often a very rough
exper ence.
These expeditions of which 1 have given a short account,
embraced most of the professional observations which I was
able to carry out during the last days of January and the first
few days of February. I learned, of course, a good deal more
from the conversations I had with well-informed persons, and
was invited to visit some other medical units which were very
unfavourably reported on to me, but they did not come
within the lines I had marked out, and want of time prevented
me fix>m following up the suggested visits.
ITie condition of Cape Town during the month of January
continually recalled to me the accounts which history has
handed down to us of the state of Brussels in the summer of
1816, just before the battle of Waterloo. The city simoly
swarmed with distinguished and representative individuals.
The nobility were almost as numerous as commoners, men of
letters were well represented, and so were statesmen and
politicians, and nearly all were there with the purpose of
offering unselfish aid to our country. Volunteers from most
parts of the Empire, who had been unable to obtain useful
posts when applying at home in Britain, had come to Africa
to make tender of their services ; they were there from Alaska,
New Zealand, Australia, and from almost every place which
it was possible to name ; numbers of them were desirous of
entering the volunteer irregular corps which were being rapidly
embodied and organised, and all who were physically qualified
quickly obtained their wish and in such corps did magnificent
service in the later stages of the war. The South African
Colonists and Africanders, a fine set of men, who mostly knew
the country and the tongues spoken in it, joined the forces in
great numbei*. Troopers from Victoria arrived, other regi-
ments were constantly being disembarked and despatched to
their various destinations, and as I returned from my visit to
Robben Island I counted 116 vessels in Table Bay. I was
constantly meeting in the streets or the Mount Nelson Hotel
comrades whom I had last seen in the Soudan, all eager, both
soldiers and civilians, to strike another blowfor the old country.
The consultant surgeons who had been sent out from England
to place their unrivalled skill at the disposal of the army were
also there in numbers, all of them such as had risen or were
rising into the higher ranks of the profession at home. Many
ladies, beautiful and accomplished women who at the first
glance appeared to be butterflies come to flutter in the eyes
of the military, were soon found out to be intent only in doing
everything that was possible to aid the cause by voluntary
SOUTH AFRICAN WAR
107
work, influence, and money. I think it was there that I first
fully appreciated the immense power which voluntary aid is
capable of rendering to a nation in war time, and it was bitter
to see how it was wasted by having to dash in vain against
the barriers of officialdom.
Departmental heads of army services, billeted in Ihe Mount
Nelson Hotel, took their meals there, and I learned to know
some of them, who were polite and even kind to me, and the
dining-room and the lounge later in the evening were brilliant
with people whose names and functions one was familiar with.
Prominent South African jurists and statesmen and war
correspondents elbowed among the crowd, and the Hotel,
which was in a bad financial position previous to the war, was
reaping a rich harvest of British money. There I met the
Times correspondent, Mr. A , who later suggested that I
should write the medical part of the History of the War which
he was compiling for his newspaper, a task I had to decline
as I felt that the time was not appropriate for the publication
of the views which I held.
Of all the wej; 'mown personalities whom I met, there were
only one or two m whom time and circumstances permitted
me to take a real interest, and whose characters arrested my
particular attention. Among them was Sir J F , the
representative of the British Red Cross, who gave me a good
deal of information as to what was being done by his associa-
tion ; no doubt that was its best, but it was easy to see that,
in many respects, its best might have been bettered had its
organisation been laid down on wider lines, better prepared
beforehand, more energetically worked, and cordially sup-
ported from within the army. I must not omit the mention
of my old friend Dr. David Gill, who was active and interested
in questions of voluntary aid to our forces, was ever over-
flowingwith kindness to all,and in whose beautiful observatory,
practically his own creation, furnished with instruments and
apparatus at that time unmatched in the whole world, he
carried out astronomical investigations which gained him a
world-wide reputation and earned him the well-merited
honour of Knight Commander of the Bath, as well as many
other distinctions. But the most impressive personality with
whom I was brought into contact, more so than even General
Roberts, was Sir Alf^d Milner. The Queen had allowed him
to be written to about me, and after I had called at Govern-
ment House he invited me to lunch with him. He inquired
into the work which I had in prospect, and was interested in
what I had seen and learned regarding the positions at the
front, and the state of health of th- (Toops there. After
nft' l|M
It' '1
. H m
108 REMINISCENCES OF THREE CAMPAIGNS
lunoheon we had a long talk d deux on the varies subjects
which were on every one's lips at the time, until Kitchener
was announced, when I took my departure 'I had the m""
„^il'?u "•^''" Per«'"«"y t" meet I,ord Kitchener), and I left
w.th the .mpression that Sir Alfred Mihier was oni of the few
really great men, m every sense, whom I had met, e ' was
certamly the greatest man in South Africa
tn h^^J't ?'' f Janya^ I had seen about everything likely
to be of value to me in the neighbourhood of Cape Town, and
N^so^nllltll^K '';'"''' f "^^« '" '"''"'y '" the Mount
Si K •• ^^^ ""1^ ?^ '*»'""« indicated to me by Lord
Roberts havmg expired, I went to his office on the 2nd of
Fe^aiy, saw his secretary, and left with him an application
tL^%i°^ "11° *°"'' P*!^' °^'hc forces where I could study
the methods of bringing aid to the wounded under the modeni
r»w C J^""^'"^- I ^°«J«1 ^y application thus becau™
l^vl i were surgeons enough at the bases and along
the Imes of communication, and that the consultants were
bemg sent to such places. The secretary promisS a riply
to my apphca ion I could not help being somewhat anxious
as to the result, and wondering if by any chance I should meet
with arefusal. I felt that the influence of the army medical
f^r/^^H* rrl^ P?l'"""y ^ unfavourable; but, T the
other hand, I had hitherto got everything 1 want^ whSe
many greater men had been refused, without respect of^rTons
anythmg l*e the facilities which had been coSdto me
However, I had been chafing, though endeavouring not to do
^',^ t^'"*.K°J'T^'" V ^"P'' '"^"- "»«» it waf becoming
hard to bear the delay. Lut 1 did not have to wait very Ion/
TZ -oxZ^^ °^ '^ 6th February, on calling at th7officf !
fW T^ ^ "::"' *hc military secretary, learned from him
that I was to go the next night to Modder River, and obtained
the necessary passes. This was precisely the arrangement 1
^^fw^l t'T "" t*''*"' ^°' ^ »"™'^ that ^Kberts
would strike from that quarter, and that his first blow was
^st about to fall. When I called on General W— TtX
medical headquarters next morning, to go through the
foimahty of asking his sanction to my joining Methuen's
C^Za T ^°^''^^ ^^''- ""-^ ^«l"^ti I be^atteched to
Colonel Townsend's command, he did not readily consent
fu ?„'?'>.'lrr''' ^1 "."u*^"* 8'°^^ campaign,' but^S l^
full of hardships and fighting, and that he would give me
neither tent, service, nor transport for my baggaRe but that
th^'diST'''' ""y rVe"^' ^°'^- «"«» ^ervanTVt one o
these did I possess, for I had expected to receive them ■ they
could not be obtained, if at all, in the half-dozen houTs before
SOUTH AFRICAN WAR ,09
^^i!"}"^- ^".u ^ *"" ""^ ' ™" °f '"ther beds, and my
XXVI
The Akmy Medical Service
It seems to pe appropriate to introduce here a few remarks
eoncernmg the condition in which I found the p^pS^
of the Bntish forces in South Africa for dealing ^th ?he^ck
von Bloik th!° P"'^"t,t''*^« «ith » quotation from Johann
von Block, the great Russian writer on modem w»rSn.
probably he greatest authority who has ^ver ?eaTt^m
prehensively with the strife of'^nations. I quote ft«m the
German edition, which was well known before th^ ^ ^ar
broke out, through which his opinions came to be acSTfn
most civhsed countries, though they did not app^^^ve
dawned upon those who were charged with the ^^istraHon
of the roya army medical department. The pTs^Br^ns
as follows : ' In den Zuki-jiftskriegen durfte es l^um moi^nh
sem ohne eine Beteiligung der Gesluschaft an der Hitfekfi
fur Verwundete za bestehen. Wenn man aber die^ Sn?
^nh^"'^^.'"'" ^°?^'**8 organisieren und ^e dann syiL^
lerSe^ -^I^." ^-"J' »^8"»f d^'en Folgen ausserst iSSh
werden This assertion of Block's that calamity is likehTto
ensue if the aid of the civilian population is not Jarly organTs^
and regularly continued on behalf of the sick and wo32dto
warfare in supplement to the medical organisation w"thin tte
army, was already, at this period of my connec^L with the
wax provmg itsetf to be well founded, and the fo mutteriSs
?or nl? r ""^'"^ ^"? ''•~"* *° •>«="'' upon our War Offlfe
for neglectmg the wammg were already audible in Cape T^n
and m our armies in the field. The best people in C^Se ToZ
were almost in revolt at the conditions whfch were showZ
themselves, and many others, who were not cTCials S
at home and at the Cape, were expressing themXes v^ry
SL=irtt%L--:* £fgH^-
o4is^L,ti^^s»i:^'is^itt^Sy",s
•.Ml
i ,. i -]
i . ]
< \ ■
I.
no REMINISCENCES OF THREE CAMPAIGNS
by the W«r OfBoe, and, it muit be aMiuned, with the authority of
the Seeictary of State lor War, it ha* never even been pretended
that the army medical department wai organiied (or the purpoees
of war. It was maintained on the very lowest peace footing, and
no proper measurei were talun tor its expanaion.'
'^ '^ (Patt MttU Giaette, »rd July \900.)
Yet when
'Sir Walter Foater wrote to Mr. Wyndham, propoaing the
appointment of a small sanitary commission to proceed to South
Africa, and offering his own services (the work of such a commis-
sion would have been, among other things, to guard against the
contamination of water supplies, or, when that was not possible,
to warn the camps against the use of suppUes which were contami-
nated). Lord Lansdowne declined his oner on the ground that the
need of special assistance was not the same in samtary matters as
in surgical operations. Yet it is possible that sdentinc sanitation
directed by experts might have saved hundreds of Uves, and pre-
vented thousands of cases of sickness.'
{Wettmifuter Gazette, 29lh June 1900.)
This was a straw which showed the direction of the wind.
But at the Cape matters had moved quickly on, and people
there showed resentment of what was occurring Thus :
' There had been a tremendous amount of criticism. . . . There
was a general feeling that things were not right in the hospitals
or convalescent wards ; he had heard that the convalescent homes
were really not properly attended to in the matter of food.'
(Rev. J. J. M'Cluee, Daily Neat, 25th July 1900.)
Again:
' A civilian who spent hundreds upon hundreds of pounds in
buying common necessaries for the field hospitals told me that he
was informed the army medical men could not purchase a ther-
mometer except at the risk of personal pecuniary loss. It wanted
three months, he said, for a field hospital to observe *he formula
for getting supplies which he used to buy at an hour's notice.'
(JuuAN Ralph, Daily Mail, 29<A June 1900.)
And once more :
' At a meeting of the Good Hope Society for the Aid of the Sick
and Wounded, the Archbishop of Cape Town remarked that it
fairly made his blood boil to think that there was such disgraceful
neglect, particularly at Rosebank Hospital. . . . There has been a
growing feeling of dissatisfaction on the part of both public and
patjent£ with the way in which the miUtary hospitals and con-
valescent wards are being managed. Grave complaints are made,
anonymously for the most part, in the press, but the greatest
SOUTH AFRICAN WAR m
difficulty is ezpeiienoed in obUining definite deuili, with pnwfa.
owmg to the unwillmgnen of the men concemed to m»ltt <i«Sei
^i-i' °"|y *»"■ to »y t>»»t the Archbishop subsequently
modified his statements. "»«=S"™"y
1 ^i i* P° r i'','" *•"* *''*"* '«" quotations and their dates may
lead to a httle confusion, but 1 have thought it best to give
the published words, as they represented the exact feelings
which prevailed, and the remarks which were being pass^
from mouth to mouth nearly everywhere during the month of
January, when I was in Cape Town. I myself was often the
recipient of complamts as to the condition of some, particu-
larly of one, of the hospitals, of the indifference with which
the efforts of ladies and gentlemen to be serviceable in atten-
tions to the sick and wounded were met, that ladies wishing
to give voluntan^ help were refused admission to the wards!
and ev«i t^t offers of beds for sick men lying on the ground
.Jf ^^^^ it seemed to me that there was abundant evidence
that the heads of the army medical department in Africa
were out of sympathy with progressive ideas. The principal
medical officer m especial was the usual product of the depwt-
ment in those days. A man of ability and a good administra-
tor, he believed, and expected others to accept, that the armv
medical service was perfect ; he had no proper appreciation
of the value of the civilian consultants who were sent out bv
the authorities at home, told them that there was nothing for
them to do, and that there were only a few minor cases of
ailments in the hospitals (one of his staff told me personaUy
the same story), and presumed to direct eminent metropolitan
sw^ns exactly how they were to deal with penetrating
abdominal wounds, and even the fashion in which they must
dress the wourded men. He probably had good grounds for
refusmg the offer of a hospital from Sir James Sievewriaht
whose motives m other things were not entirely beyond the
suspicion of being ambiguous ; but in the case of a similar
offer from Mr. Logan of Matjesfonteiii. the refusal created a
bad unpression in the country. He showed a spirit of dislike
towards the Red Cross, and on one occasion questioned me in
sharp accento concerning a request which I had forwarded
ftom a very able army surgeon to the Red Cross for some
specK pparatus which was urgently needed, and which the
arm;, uid not provide. Under his persistent adherence to
obsolete or mappropnate methods of circumlocution, too. the
hospitals suffered ftt)m want of necessaries which were easily
'I;
' >
! I
113 REMINISCENCES OF THREE CAMPAIGNS
obtainable, such as those alluded to by an ofHcer of the Army
Service Corps, who, writing from Woodstock Hospital (No. 5
Base Hospital) in Cape Town, to the newspapers, said :
' My official position is sufficient authority tor the truth of the
statement that the deficiency of milk and medical eon\forU is quite
inexcusable. The supply officers place no limit on either. The
army doctors can have them without limit j but they refuse, for
reasons best known to tliemselves, to avail themselves of the
opportunities offered. The cooking is execrable. Food, as
cooked here, is barely eatable by a sound man. The only excuse
tne army medical authorities can otter is that it is war time.
War time is not responsible for the site of the hospital, nor for any
of the scandals I have detailed.'
The spirit that pervaded the P.M.O.'s administration was
shown in an order issued, 1 think, in February, that all applica-
tions to the Red Cross should be submitted to the army
principal medical officer for his approval before being sent.
The comments of those who knew what other nations were
doing in adapting their army medical services to the times,
were not such as a Briton could be proud of ; one could not
but be ashamed of the contrast between what was everywhere
witnessed in the Cape and the standard accepted in the United
States, that the wounded soldier is entitled to e^^ct the same
treatment and privileges as he would have received if he had
sustained a similar injury in civil life.
As regards the British Red Cross Society, its attitude, as
reported by prominent and patriotic citizens of Cape Town,
was not altogether a satisfactory one. Some of their officials
seemed to suffer from the arrogant idea, which elsewhere and
often has been one of the weaknesses of that organisation,
that no voluntary assistance to the sick and wounded can be
rendered otherwise than through the Red Cross Society, and
this had caused it to be regarded with some dislike and in-
difference. Their chief officer had, by some representations
of this sort, mano6U"red the Good Hope Society, whose good
intentions I have aheady described, into making him its agent,
intimating that in no other way could they render effectual
service. My own subsequent experience of the Red Cross
Society in Africa was by no means a favourable one. One
instance I may cite, though it belonged to a later stage of the
war. A certain field hospital which was . My provided had
only a few boxes for scats ; some of its medical officers, though
almost dropping from fatigue from their work, had to take
their meals standing ; and among their patients it was an
almost hourly occurrence to see wounded officers and men, just
SOUTH AFRICAN WAR
I' I
'13
urivecl after houn and dsyi of travelling in primitive carts
which had brought them in from Paardeberg and elsewhere,
limping out of these oonveyancea, or hopping painfully out
of their tents, trying to sneak off with a something to sit upon,
the many unaccommodated watching the fortunate few who
were in possession in order to annex it when one of them left
it unguarded for an instant. I wrote an application to the
Red Cross officials in Cape Town for the gift or loan or purchase
of half a dozen or twelve folding chairs, but no attention was
paid to my request. In fact, up country, where the ministra-
tions of the Red Cross were most needed, 1 can remember only
one instance where a Red Cross representative was seen on
the veld, and then he had nothing which was of any use to
offer. The society ought to have had its own transport from
the very beginning, and have sent up to the front, or as near to
it as possible, suitable officers provided with well-selected
stores for the medical units. Instead of this, which would
have been Invaluable, they spent the funds on some hospital
trains and such like imposing contributions, which benefited
only a very few. Had they sent out a few capable cooks for
the medical units, they would have done incalculable good at
a vanishing fraction of the expense.
Since I am dealing with the subject of the provision for the
sick and wounded in this campaign, it is well that I should
remind my readers of the punishment which Nemesis presently
sent down on the army medical department, which however
unfortunately fell on the shoulders of the able and faithful
subordinates instead of on those who chiefly deserved it. In
doing so I am forced to anticipate a little, for the occurrences
to which I am about to refer happened some months later,
wher I was lying unconscious at Bloemfontein.
In ue month of June, Mr. Burdett-Coutts wrote to the
newspapers at home an account of what he had witnessed in
some of the hospitals. I quote a portion of his remarks :
' After the occupation of Bloemfontein hundreds of men, to my
knowledt^, were lying in the worst stages of typhoid, with only a
blanket and a thin waterproof sheet (not even the latter for many
of them) between their aching bodies and the hard ground, with
no milk iwid hardly any medicines, without beds, stretehcre, or
mattresses, without pillows, without linen of any kind, without a
single nurse among them, with only a few private soldiers to act as
orderlies, rough and utterly untrained to nursing, and with only
three doctors to attend on 850 patients. . . . About the same time
a convoy of wounded men were being subjected to nameless torture
for want of any ambulance transport or the simplest coniforts,
huddled together in rough, springless ox-wagons, jolted over spruit
U
M- ';
^ ' ! 'Il^
it4 REMINISCENCES OF THREE CAMPAIGNS
and drift lor forty mile* ; the road being itmtcgiialljr lafe and
their destination being thii lame Bloemfontein, provided with
moit thing! excsept humane appUanoei for the wounded. Bloem-
fbntein, it may be added, wai onlv one mile diitant. Many of the
patienti in the fleld hoipital at the lame place were leen lying in
three incheo of mud I '
Two weeks later another visit disclosed the following state
of things :
' With no further equipment than two marquees and a few bell
tents, no addition of staff or anything else, there were 818 patients,
of whom half were typhoida. Their condition was almost inde-
scribable. In many of these there were ten typhoid cases lying
closely packed toocther, the dying against the convalescent, the
man in bis " crisis pressed against the man hastening to it. There
was not room to step between them. The heat of these tents in
the midday sun was overpowering, their odours sickening. Men
lay with their faces covered with flies in bUck clusters, too weak
to raise a hand to brush them off, trying in vain to dislodge 'hem
by painful twitching of their features. At night there were not
enough to prevent those in the delirious stage from getting up and
wandering about the camp half-naked in the bitter cold. In one
tent, where some slept and others lay with eyes open and staring, a
case of " perforation was groaning out his life huddled against his
neii^bour on the ground.' {Daiiy Mail, iSth June 1900.)
Again:
'There were 3800 enteric patients when I left Bloemfontein,
and they were in large proportion left to He on the ground and be
nursed by ignorant and slovenly " Tommy " attendants. They lay
in water, they were rained on, and the sanitary arrangements were
such that, at least in some hospitals, they had to leave their blanket
at the risk of death.' {Wetlmimter Oazette, 2Wh June 1900.)
Burdett-Coutts's statements were amply confirmed by
others, but I cite only two in corroboration. Julian Ralph
wrote:
' I have no hesitation in saying that I considered the treatment
of the sick and wounded — especially after the main advance from
Modder River — primitive, cruel, and almost barbaric, as well as
needless and inexcusable. And Surgeon-Captain Brownlee, who
was with the Highland Brigade during the mareh on Bloemfontein,
in command of the bearer company, is quoted as stating in plain
tenns that he had not enough men or ambulances to cope with the
heavy work to he done. At one time, it is stat^. two ambulances,
with accommodation for four patients lying and six sitting, were all
he had to wait on the sick and wounded of a bodv of 4000 men.'
{Wettmiruter Gazette, WlA June 1900.)
SOUTH AFRrCAN WAR ,,3
Ewry medioBl oiBMr who w>. in the Orange Free State at
m^reTll^t? *^'* Burdrtt-CoutU', .t.lunenU were nothing
«,^J^^i. t *"" unv«m.!,hed tn.th, and the sceneN ther?
r^ ti?.^* have never left the meniorie, of tho.e who wit-
r^ ""em- At home hi. reports created a great uusa^ion,
but hu statement! were never denied or disproved ; they were
notonouily too true. Hence the War Offlci had ti blTwhlte!
wBiUed. Emment authorities replied to him that ' War is
War. and seemed to thinlc that that solved the questiot..
CHhers m.sj|ed the pmnt of the matter by defending th. medica
offlcen. whom Burdett-Coutt, had never attacked. Some
extenuated the conditions which they could not other^Ts^
which don t carry beds,' as if it had been divinely oXined
!hSuM ll°^T^'" \". Commandment, of a field hospital
should be 'Thou Shalt carry no beds,' and were at on^
coimtered by Julian Ralph :
r.Z'?!,'* " "° ,"?;"■ '*"™ "''y even " flying hospital. " cannot
^rL^ ""^ '°"""f American beds than there wm reaJTwhy
we correspondent, sfiould do without them; yet we .TrarrieS
^eje or mfenor beds, which were Ught, smkll. and po^k
nve to seven hundred American camp beds could be carried in
one ox-wagon.' (C^-^ mm, 2W* Junt IKw!)
Public opinion was roused and something had to be done
IL »•■ •'«'=n^«d the War Office in Parliament. A South
Attioan Hospitab Inquiry Commission was appointed at
Which experts talked vaguely about the necessity of havina
etosticity m the army medical arrangementa and laroe reserves
; JJ?^ ^"t- ,^™ newspapers opined that ' The Commander-
in-Chiers first thought was for his men who were to enaace the
enemy, not for those who had fallen by the way,' as if a Bieat
and wealthy nation like Britain hud any justification in pre-
paring for war without as much consideration for the sick and
wounded as for the fighting forces. The director-general of
the urmy medical department was reported to have said :
' All I can teU you is that, whatever has happened, the depart-
ment has done the right thing/ "^
{fFatmiruter Gazette, 2nd June 1900.)
And the following burlesque was solemnly enacted. I quote
from the PaU Mall Gasette of the 2»th of June 1900 :
' A FURTHZE £s BEQUiRED.— Included in the pariiamentarv
papers to-day is a copy of the Army Supplement EsUmate, dated
.•' I'
• '8
;•■ l|l:
I • \i
116 REMINISCENCES OF THREE CAMPAIGNS
yesterday, for the nominal sum of £S for the army medical estab-
lishment, which the Govemtnent have submitted as a vehicle for
to-day's discussion on the charges of hospital mismanagement and
insufficiency in South Africa. The document sets forth that it is
an " Estimate of the further amount that will be required during
the year ending March 81, 1901, to meet expenditure in excess of
that provided for in the original army estimates for the year for
medical establishment aid for medicines." The original estimate
for medical establishment, pay, and so on, was for £S5S,000. The
•' revised estimate " is for £5JJ,00J : additional sum required, £8.'
And it ended in that! Who can marvel at my holding
more strongly than ever the conviction that, whether it comes
to pass soon or late, the army medical service will never take
its rightful place in the nation's defence until it is made in-
dependent of the War Office, and has its own heads directly
responsible to Parliament ? In whatever shape, or however
late, it must come to that.
XXVII
Lord Methlten's Column
Having given an account of what was going on in Cape Town,
I next propose to tell of my experiences while attached to
Lord Methuen's column, the fortunes of which I had decided
to follow.
Leaving the capital on Wednesday evening, the 7th of
February, my only luggage being a large bundle of the latest
newspapers for distribution among the troops along the line
and a small bag containing a few books and some changes
of clothing, I followed the same route to Modder River as
on the previous occasion, my companions being Dr. and Mrs.
G , who were going to do duty at De Aar, and an old
colonial. Captain Sissison, a man of sixty-seven years of age,
who had seen war in battles witli the natives and was now-
drawing his veteran sword once more in the service of the
homehmd, which he had left half a century before.
There was intense activity all along the line. There were
no more comfortable breakfasts and dinners at the stations,
but scrambles and thankfulness for anything eatable that
could be obtained ; and morning toilets hastily performed at
draw-wells and tubs at wayside stoppages. Orange River
camp had increased to ten times its former size, and so busied
was the railway there that we had to wait six hours, from eight
in the morning until two in the afternoon, before they could
. >
SOUTH AFRICAN WAR
"7
send us on. Not only was the line blocked with trains, but the
roads over the veld alongside it, for many miles on the north
of Orange River, were a spectacle worth beholding owing to
the enormous numbers of wagons with mule and oxen teams
rolling northwards like a great river, some moving on, others
outspanned during the heat of the day, their ox-chains
spread out straight before them on the ground, and the oxen
spilling themselves like out -poured water in great droves over
the country. These masses of transport re. !:>>.-ed p. sort of
order, with division behind division and .nter/als be^i» :en,
squadrons of wagoni guarded by troops of c v ^ i?.y transp( r ting
ammunition and stores to reheve the prestar'' on the n ilway
which otherwise would have been far too g.eat iui i<-. Still
farther north, towards Belmont and Enslin, bodies of soldiers,
a thousand or two in each, with their bands and baggage
carts; were marching along parallel to the railway among
clouds of dust, all of them parts of an army being assembled
for some great purpose near Modder River.
No one knew what the intentions were, or what were Lord
Roberts's movements — these were well-concealed secrets — but
we afterwards learned that he and Kitchener had gone north
the day before us, and were making like ourselves for Modder
River. It was midnight before we reached it, though we came
within sight of it at nine ; and as it was too late to disturb
any one I got leave to sleep in the railway carriage. In the
morning I rose and dressed at a very early hour and went in
search of Colonel Townsend, whom I found at his former
quarters. Though these were unchanged, yet Modder River
had altered greatly during my abseree. Instead of about
12,000 troops, there were now some 60,000, and instead of a
few camps scattered about, with only two, and these small
ones, on the southern bank of the river, the whole plain on
the south was a huge city of canvas as far as the eye could
reach, while far away on the surrounding eminences glittered
the lamps of the outposts flashing their messages to the centre,
and on the eastern horizon glowed the bush fires lit by the
Boers to clear off the scrub which would have impeded their
markmanship against their opponents. Day was breaking
and these lights disappearing, and the bustle of the day was
awakening in the great army. I received a welcome and a cup
of coffee from Townsend, who then walked over with me to the
First Divisional Field Hospital of Lord Methuen's column, to
which he had decided to attach me, and it was delightful to
find it was under the command of an old acquaintance and
former pupil. Major C , some of whose subalterns I had
already met when they were serving at De Aar. After break-
:. n
1
: wn
I
i
i '
ii8 REMINISCENCES OF THREE CAMPAIGNS
fasting with my friend P of the Naval Brigade, I made my
adieus to Colonel Townsend and proceeded to what was now
to be my permanent abode, whither my small baggage had
preceded me. The principal medical officer at Cape Town,
in dissuading me from going to the front, had told nie that I
should receive nothing but food, but Major C got me a tent,
though it was one out of which a typhoid fever pnticnt had just
been carried ; a mess-sergeant undertook to fetch me a bucket
of watpr every morning, and therewith was provided all the
service I required. ' Shanks's Mare,' ns we say in Scotland,
would furnish a means of locomotion equal at least to that of
any foot soldier, and surely I could get my light kit-bag stuck
away on some baggage van, and there was my transport
provided ; or at the worst I could hire or buy at some farm
on the way a horse, mule, or curt. Accordingly, with a thank-
ful spirit I hung up my things in the tent, laid a mackintosh
on a stretcher for a b«d, and was better off than many a man
on the same plain.
The First Divisional Field Hospital, about a mile from Lird
Methuen's headquarters and lying to the west of the Highland
Brigade, was the important hospital which gathered in most
of the cases of illness, and had attached to it two enteric fever
hospitals in buildings and a number of marquees filled with
sufferers from the same disease. Since my former visit the
fever had enormously increased, and was becoming a scourge
in the camps. In place of twenty a month previously, there
were over a hundred cases, besides many who had been sent
down the line to De Aar or Cape Town ; they were daily
increasing in number, and the virulence of the disease was
augmenting, the proportion of deaths becoming very high.
After C— ^ had disposed in the morning of the usual crowd
of walking patients who came to consult him in the pharmacy
tent, I accompanied him round the two fever hospitals, a
third under two junior officers, and a fourth under Dr. Greig,
a London physician aged sixty-two, who had come out and
volunteered to serve the country by devoted work among the
fever-stricken. It was a noble action, and one for which he
shortly afterwards* paid with his life. Three nursing sisters
were now attending the sick, one of whom. Sister G , had
given up a nursing home of her own in order to give her skill
to the army. It was doubtless owing to these women that
the fever hospitals were now cleaner, and bright with pictures
and bits of colour, charts were being more satisfactorily taken,
and things generally better done, but there was still a great
want of better accommodation, and of more women nurses to
give attention to the patient's food, medicines, and cleanliness.
SOUTH AFRICAN WAR
119
Things were really being done as well as possible, but the task
lay beyond the powers of the workers. Mosquito curtains
were now supplied for the flies, but, whether or not the fault
was due to their management, they wer not used, but squares
of muslin were laid instead over the i'aces of the patients.
Instructions were written up in the wards and tents, where
all might read them, but it can easily be imagined how little
they could be iiurried into effect where there were, among the
hundred or more grave cases, but these three ladies and a set
of orderlies who were for the most part unfitted to be in charge
of the management of men so seriously ill. The patients had
to assist their own purposes, infectious matters were not
properly disinfected or properly disposed of, all from want of
a suitable number of competent sick-ward attendants. The
soldiers who volunteer to enlist in the Royal Army Medical
Corps do so under the imagination that their functions will be
to take part in battles, carry wounded under fire, and so forth,
and when they have to do dangerous and repulsive duties in
pest-houses, become for the most part disillusioned and in-
efficient. The quiet heroism required for the latter work is
beyond most men. The hospitals were a sad, sad sight.
And the flies ! They were swarming on the faces of the in-
sensible men, swarming even inside their mouths, and then
conveying the poison elsewhere, and poison, traps, and papers
were next to useless in dealing with them. Many men were
dying, and in the evening the bagpipes were wailing the
' Flowers of the Forest ' as small sorrow • "oups of kilted
men went slowly and solemnly across the V :he cemetery,
carrying the uncoffined bodi;s of some ^ „or Highlander
comrades (for whom, alas 1 it was ' Lochaber no more ') who
had given their lives for England and died far from home amid
rough, though kindly strangers. One's heart grew full to
think how many of these men might have been saved, but for
the fact that our rich country was ready to spend its money
on everything save in organising in peace time the proper
care of the sick and wounded in war.
Surely Horace had not seen all the sides of warfare when he
wrote of the soldier's life : ' Momento cita mors venit, aut
victoria leta.' It was the reverse of the military medal which
one saw in these military hospitals. The sights were such
that, had our rulers spent a few weeks in them, seen what they
had to reveal, and compared them with our best civil fever
hospitals, well provided and well staffed as they were at home,
they would have carried an undying remorse with them to
their graves.
Some of the doctors had no stethoscope ; I myself had to
:il<
:,; ;l
f
i ' '.
ig
i
'";
!^
11-
1 1 ,'_
M
tao REMINISCENCES OF THREE CAMPAIGNS
supply one surgeon with some instruments for the diagnosis
of acute ear disease ; and the operations of the Red Cross
Society hardly reached or were even heard of up country,
where the need of them was greatest.
On that same morning I witnessed another and more re-
freshing sight. On going with C , after seeing him slaving
at his thankless duty, into some other marquees, I noticed
that every patient's face was joyful and every eye bright.
And why 1 Because they were all to be sent down by a
hospital train that very du v to Cape Town. They were about
six-and-twenty glad men, more eager to get out of the camps
in the front thnii those in Cape Town were to get into them.
The poor lads knew and had experienced what were the
realities of wor ; a brief fight or two ; brief joys dearly bought
at the price of e. tloads of dead comrades, and probably
never a visible foe ; the malaise ; the illness ; the dread
hospital or sick tent, crowded, hot, noisy ; food which they
loathed ; restless days of heat and flies superadded to their
sickness, nights of fever-tossing or snatches of rest broken by
the groans, the sufterings, the smells, the death noises and cries
and the passing o way of two or three daily of their companions
in the ward, whose last agonies were hidden from them by no
friendly screen. Then the thought whether they too must go,
and the alternation of fear and hope the only breaks in the
sad monotony of the long hours. No wonder they were glad
to be going down country I To get lifted out on stretchers
across the burning plain, to get into the crowded carriages,
to be tossed and jolted for days down to just such another
lazar-house, where the vermin would fall upon them all night
and their troubles be but repeated in a new locality — even
these changes, most of which they did not foresee, were being
looked forward to with eager gladness, because they would
get nearer home and farther from the war of which they had
seen enough. I saw them shipped on their train, and after
hours of delay forwt >^ on their long hot journey, and hardly
were they gone thv vheir places were taken by others who
were being hurried in &om the camps as fast as room could
be found for them.
XXVIII
Lord Roberts's Strategy
I WAS next able to watch Lord Roberts's opening moves in
the great game which he was playing, which ended in the
victory of Briton over Boer. He mov^ fast and struck hard.
SOUTH AFRICAN WAR 121
He arrived at Modder River on the 9th of February, and when
I rode round the cnmp on the morning of the 11th, the
tents on the whole great area to the south of the river were
as silent as death ; the tents, though standing, were empty,
and the armies there had gone in the night ; 80,000 men
had departed at two in the morning for a march of sixteen
miles, and no one was left to tell whither they had gone. Next
day the Highland Brigade had also vanished, and there re-
mamed only the Guards, Northumberlands, and some others
under Methuen's command. But the tents of those who had
gone wtre left undisturbed, so that they seemed as big as ever,
although their garrison had shrunk to a few thousiind men!
This may have been designed to convey to the enemy the idea
that the whole army was still there ; yet, however skilfully
concealed, it was not likely to have been unsurniised by the
crafty Boers, and their turning the tables upon us, by attack-
ing m thej- turn, had become quite a probable event. The
whole arrangement may hp vt i>een in part a ruse to induce
them to do -o, as 1 conjectured from Lord Meihuen having said
to me, when 1 called on him on the morning of the 12th, that
he hoped they would venture to attack him. Orders had
been issued that, until further instructions, every man was to
sleep in his boots, ready for duty at a moment's notice ;
and observation by captive balloons went on steadily every
day so as to ascertain the dispositions and possible movements
of the enemy.
It was then the hottest part of the year, the temperature in
the shade being 110 degrees, and dust storms were frequent.
Through the heat and dust refugees kept pouring in to Modder
River, coming from the north, twelve hundred in a day, with
passes written in Dutch on British Government paper, and
each refugee wearing a ribbon rosette of the four Transvaal
colours— the ' Vierkleur '—to distinguish them as refugees.
They were many of them from Barkly West, a-.d were in a
miserable plight ; all classes were represented, ladies, gentle-
men, farmers, and blacks, and of every age dorfn to babies in
arms. Others had come ftxjm much longer distances, and
had been travelling on foot and in carts,, in heavy rains and
bummg heat, and were very dirty and evil-smelling, though
some of the better class had contrived, Heaven knows how,
to keep themselves and their children c!ean and tidy. Poor
folks ! they felt as if the worst of their troubles were over
when they saw the trains in which they were to be taken
down country.
I had a memorable interview with General Hector Mac-
donald, who had succeeded to the command r-f the Highland
i :!
1>W
I ', ■
it >.(
iff
pi-
f'tl.
;i
:r !t
11 I
IJ2 REMINISCENCES OF THREE CAMPAIGNS
Brimde. before it left, and it wus the last time I ever saw him.
He was wandering about in the Naval Brigade camp, looking
the simple Scot and flnc fellow he was, and had just returned
from i.n expedition to KocKlocsberg. awny towards the west,
and had enjoyed what he considered a satisfactory time with
the Boers, having closed the fords of the Reit River by which
they and the disloyal Dutch were passing, and given them a
Kood beating, which was only prevented from being a rather
important victory by the failure of the cavalry leader, who was.
I believe, subsequently got rid of.
The whole day long on the 18th of February cannonad-
ing was going on all round us, particularly towards the
south-east, the direction in which Lord Roberts had moved,
and from the tops of the houses in Modder people were watch-
ing the fight going on in the distance. Towanls evening the
skv in that quprter was illuminated by the glare of a great
confUigration. and a magnificent storm of thunder and light-
ning sprang up. followed by a tremendous wind and dust
storm, so dense that all the openings of *}>«*"''» ''8^*°.™
closed, and the evening meal taken amid choking dust by the
dim light of lanterns, for no candle could be kept alight.
When the wind had lulled f. little we crept into our tents and
laced ourselves in, but soon the wind veered round, and trom
the reverse direction another dust storm arose, more violent
than the first, so that we lay with layers of dust falling on our
clothing, beds, faces, and ears, while the wind roared, and
guns boomed, and the tents were being blown away. Fmally.
however, the wind fell, we rose, shook off the dust, freed our
obstructed breathing apertures, and fell asleep hopmg that
some great event had at last turned the tide of unending
reverses which Britain had up to then sustained, and that
' Bobs ' was fighting a successful battle and burning Jacobsdal.
On the day following, the 14th of February, the f^hting
seemed to be harder than ever, the cannon continued their
noisy chorus all around, the war balloon was in the sky dttect-
ing them, and this went on from daybreak until, between three
and five in the afternoon, there came a lull of which C and
I took advantage to go up to the outposts where the great naval
Buns were posted in their deep concealed pits. We sustained
no harm beyond a drenching from a thunderstorm, which
cooled the intense heat a little, yet not so much but that we
were dry again by the time we had walked back to afternoon
tea No sooner were we back than the cannonadmg burst
out afresh, this time rather more to the north-east, and now
and again came the rattle of small arms. Evening brought
someTnlightenment as to the result of all the fightmg. From
SOITH AFRICAN WAR
"3
the wounded who came back we learned that the glare we had
Men was really from the burning of Jacobsdal, of which
Roberts was ui full possession, and that he had captured the
river fords, thus commanding the niiiin line of commimiciitions
between the Boer army at Miigcrsfontein and the Oningc Free
State. The fighting had been severe, and during it one of
Lord Roberts's staff had been shot dead. We had nil by this
time become so accustomed to adverse news that we had a
certain mistrust of the got)d tidings, though I think we turned
m, stdl in our boots, the happier for the accounts we had iust
received.
XXIX
Lord Roberts's Advance
The days that followed were eventful. It is difficult to tell
of their happenings without an understanding of the lie of
the country.
It has to be grasped that from Modder River camp there
rim to Kimberley, which was some thirty miles due north,
1 the railway on the west ; (2) the road in the middle ; and
(3) the boundary of the Orange Free State on the east, and
that all three were roughly parallel to one another.
A long range of low but steep kopjes, called the Langcberg,
extended from west to east across the rail and road five or six
miles north of Modder, its partially detached eastern end,
shaped like a couching lion, with a wide saddle-shaped dip at
I he loins, which we called Magersfontein (though Magersfontein
was really a farm behind it), filled the interval between the
road and the rail, and it was there that the Boers, having
crossed theu- frontier, and occupied and fortified the range,
u SJ. ^"^ Methuen. Their line of communication with
the Free State, by which they drew their supplies, came from
Bloemfontein, their capital, in a virtually straight line west-
wards to Magersfontein, across the great plains which form
that part of the Free State.
■Through these plains two large rivers flowed westwards, to
unite at Modder River camp, the more northerly being the
Modder and the other the Reit. Both were destitute of
bridges ; their crossings had to be negotiated by fords (drifts) ;
and over these were the main lines for the Boers' supplies.
Between the rivers, twelve miles distant from Modder,
was the important town of Jacobsdal, and it, as well as the
fords over the rivers, were occupied by the Boers in strong
Ml
1 , i
:i-ii-
ItUl
ia4 REMINISCENCES OF THREE CAMPAIGNS
The Boen, acting on the supposition thnt the British could
advance only along the railway, had their chief forces and
defences extending along the Langeberg t« the west, moat
concentrated at Magorsfontcin in the centre, and continuing
thence enstwords in a line of trenches across the level plain
to the bank of the Moddcr River. Behind them were the
town of Kimberley clamouring to be relieved, and the
valuable diamond mines of which it was the centre.
Roberts hod decided that his blow wa.- to fall in an un-
expected direction. He had got his troops together at Modder
ond the stations on the railway south of it, collected an
immense service of ox-wagons and other vehicles for transport-
ing the supplies his armies would require, and gone eastwards
to capture Jacobsdal, secure the river fords, and cut off the
Magersfontein army under General Cronje from the Orange
Free State. Of course, none of us were in Roberts's counsel,
but so much could readily be surmised from what was visible,
and it was not long before confirmation was received of its
general correctness. On the Ifith news arrived that he had
occupied Jacobsdal with a part of his forces, while his cavalry
were pushing northwards from thence across the two rivers
towards Kimberley, ond on the same afternoon we could see
that something unusua' was stirring among the Boers at
Magersfontein. They seemed to be moving one of their
great guns from the lowest port of the saddle-shaped depression
there, where we knew it had been located and where our
ortillery had for days been endeavouring to destroy it and had
very nearly succeeded, us we afterwards discovered. Our guns
now concentrated their fire on that place, and our lyddite shells
threw up huge fountains of dust, which rose all over the spot
and slowly drifted away eastwards. As the dusk of evening
fell we could see the convoys and guns of the Boers moving
away from Magersfontein towards the Free .State, and our
cannon in the camp were turned upon them, without however
eliciting any reply. The balloons were sent up, and much
activity prevailed, and before night had come we heard that
French had entered Kimberley.
The following day, Friday the 16th, was occupied in sending
forward the balloon and the cavalry to take possession of
Magersfontein and clear out all the Boers who stood in the
way of our advance towards the Diamond City. They soon
discovered that the whole army of the Boers under Cronje
had streamed out of Magersfontein in such haste as to save
little but their artillery ond wagons, and that instead of
retiring on their second line of fortifications at Spytfontein,
half-way to Kimberley, they had made tracks due eastwards
SOUTH AFRICAN WAR 135
for Blocmfontein, by bridle paths, aince their only good road
WB8 in Roberts's hands ; und most unfortunately for us, had
stumbled across a great convoy of 800 ox and other wagons
conveying the supplies to our army, and captured the whole
after a successful fi :ht with the sniall body which guarded it.
I say most unfortunately for us, for the loss of these supplies
altered for n time the course of the campaign, iis will immedi-
ately be seen, necessitating short rations for the troops and
cutting off of the transport for the sick and wounded.
Very eariy next morning, as I had just completed my budget
of letters for home, men began to stream .icross the camp,
regiment after regiment, with their baggage wiigons complete,
as if for some distant expedition, all going towards Mngers-
fontein, and in the early afternoon we too got instructions
that half of us, including myself, were to be ready to start
for Kimberley at five o'clock. We packed ha.stily, took down
all our tents, and were in readiness when, coming towards us
over the plain from the south, we perceived the dark mist of
a sandstorm, with its precursors of white whirlwinds of
' sand -devils," and soon all was wind and blinding dust lasting
for some hours, clearing off just before dark, sufficiently to
show us our troops in possession of Magersfontein and burning
the materials left there by the Boers. Orders came to defer
our departure until six o'clock next morning.
But it was not to be. Fate had decided otherwise. The
loss of the 200 wagons had so seriously crippled Roberts's
transport that every cart which could be spared had to be
requisitioned for the use of his army ; even our ambulance
cars were taken away, at least so few were left to us that we
were rendered immovable, and all the following day we waited
on the now bare plain, where our baggage, left standing in
heaps, was all that remained to tell where our canvas hamlet
had existed. As many as possible of our patients were sent
down to De Aar hospital by train, under the charge of one of
our officers ; the others of us got hold of a stretcher or lay
down in the sand, and there fought the mosquitoes until eleven
at night, when the worst sandstorm we had yet seen came
over us, and lasted all night, burying us under inches of dust
and robbing us of sleep save for a few snatches before the
morning broke.
Presently teams of wagons and ambulance carts were seen
pouring in with wounded men from the direction of Jacobsdal,
80 we sorrowfully put up our tentp. again, unearthing them and
ourselves from under a thick coating of sand, like moles
emerging trom the ground, and set to work to attend to the
wounded.
I il
1
1
t
\
i
iiy
136 REMINISCENCES OF THREE CAMPAIGNS
XXX
Maoebsfontein
A VISIT tn the fortified Boer position at Mafiersfonteiii gave
one a high respect fur the military ability of the enemy, when
a comparison wns made between the tactics and fortifications
he employed at Belmunt in the first days of the wnrand those
he adopted a few weeks later, as the result of his experience of
the effects which could be obtained from modern rifle fire.
He had grasped in an instant the fact that stone breastworks
on the top of hills were incomparably inferior for defence to
trenches dug across the levels at their feet. Since the latter
were almost invisible and gave little mark for artillery, while
the flat plain in front of him yielded a broader and more
advantageous zo of fire, he had instantly abandoned the
former and adopted the latter method of warfare, modifying
the trenches which were up to then customary, exchanging
the shallow ditch and bank which afforded hardly any pro-
tection against shrapnel fire, in favour of deep but narrow
excavations with a hardly visible or i'rlfully concealed b^nk
in front, with roofed-in shelters nr-i . i^-out hollows in the
bottom of the trenches, which were almost shell proof. The
genius which the Boer di-^iplayed in trench formation has really
revolutionised all subsequent warfare. At Magersfontein
battle the result was that, while our artillery were uselessly
enveloping the tons of the hills in an overwhelming torrent
of shell fire, the enemy, lying in safety and unsuspected in the
plain beneath, was able to sweep off the face of the earth with
a. flood of small-arm fire every living thing that advanced
against him.
In order to grasp to the full the situation, I followed the
route by which Methuen's army had advanced at night on
the occasion of that memorable bat;.Ie, made a survey of the
positions occupied in it by the field hospitals and bearer
companies, and passed over the ground across which the
Highland Brigade had advanced and where General Wauchope
was killed, until I reached the Boer trenches. These lay at
some distance out in the plain from the foot of the stony
kopjes the groups of which formed the range of hills, and thus
were able, as I estimated, to command a zone of fire of one
thousand yards, every foot of which would have been swept by
the bullets of the Mauser rifles, assuming that they were laid
nearly horizontally, sighted, say, for six or seven hundred
yards. A few bunches of brushwood scattered over th'' low
breastwork before the trenches rendered them invisible itil
SOUTH AFRICAN WAR
"7
one wa« juit upon them, and one or two upright rough wooden
port! with • strand or two of bwbtd w&ertretched acroti.
were hard.y to be noticed until one camr in contact with them.
Ihe trenches themselves were quite narrow, not more than
two and B half feet broad, but were six feet or more deep, and
both m front and behind were so hollowed cut below that men
could sleep in them in almost absolute safety troxn shell fire
They were the most artful constructions in the way of trenches
.VfK ^!?i"'i*".u'"* *'?"• ""•* ''"y *""* P^v"! their value
n the battle, for the result was that in the charge by the Hish-
land Brigade only two men (Seaforths) reached them, and both
were found dead at the barbed wire, while it is doubtful if
the Boers lost a smgle man in the trenches.
The Boers in their hurried evacuation of the place had left
all save the most portable possessions ; bags of food, supplies
of meal, dothmg. books, letters, cartridges, field classes, skins
and even money remained. The trenches and "shelters wer^
ma disgustmg state of filth from refuse, mburied horses
and so forth. '
I took photographs and made a survey of the whole position
It seemed pretty clear tlmt not a single British shell hadVeached
any of the trenches, but at the place where the Boer big guns
had lam m a flat gorge between two of the kopjes, hidden
away m the^ gun-pits, our lyddite shells had made holes six
feet broad by eighteen inches deep, and had for the most
part exploded directly upwards, leaving a greenish-yellow crust
^1^.%^ »rf ?J'r'\"^"'- "^^^ ''"PJ" ^^°^^ similar
eflerts from the lyddite s»-" as well as evidences of furious
bombardment, for at onf ,. . which I measured and marked
out three feet by three feet, and which seemed to be typical
of the rest, there were nineteen marks of Lee-Metford bullets
ha vmg struck, and their empty torn mantles were lying around
everywhere; and at another spot, also three feet square,
K n'f 17 f°"'^ favourably be counted, seven shrapne
bullets had struck. Fragments of lyddite shells were everv-
where, and cases of the shrapnel shells, but they were all upon
the kopjes where none of the enemy had been with the ex-
ception of a few artillerymen who may possibly have been
worfang a single gun, and none were down at the trenches
which were really occupied by the enemy.
It would perhaps be of little interest to give a description
of what I may call the fortress of Magersfoiitein, but I mav
say a word about the Boer laager. It was placed in a most
picturesque situation. From the plain which lay behind the
range, a small level arm of sand ran like a river into the kopies
among which it bent round to end in a circular amphitheatre
■ m
^ri
i I ' >J
1
'hi' ill
; S
i
i
128 REMINISCENCES OF THREE CAMPAIGNS
of .bout . hund».d y«M. bctom. the bottom "f T^Jf'' •'"
nerfectlv Bat «nd smooth, while itt .ides were •»<«? •1°")'
KjreJ.cJ:.inB it on .11 .ide. u, .. to .helter it •«.'"•' >^««
flrr Built like swallows' neitu on the slopes were urnBll
?^,u«ti.W over with bushes, thorjw. "t«w, -nd .»nd.r
materUls. their floors somewhat sc.«ped out ""d marginwi
by circles of stones, while all sorts of re ics lay «»»> ■;• •''"P-
sUns letters, meat tins, pickaxes, cartridge cases, bullets, and
Ihe wreoDini. and Ik.xcs in which the last had been packed
*.JrtrZm*unrti;,n be«riuK n.urks which t"ldth.a they had
been uumufactured in Pretoria, and most of them bemi; Boxer
c^^riZ^for Martini-Henry rifles. The bottom ofthe amph.-
?hratre''h.d s.7?e.l to picket the Boer horses, and out from .t
there ran two pretty little lanes of level ground, wu.dmg hke
'll^^k entrances' thro'ugh among the >copje» and -r>Mn« Jen
necessary as avenues for escape. On the tops of the kopjes
hmS there were stone sangars or • schunxes.' hut they
were not many, for the main defence was the trench which
Wtow^ the ciive of the foot of the range, westwards across
the railway .tnd eastwards to the Moddcr R.ver extenduig
for iI^JeTin d?her direction, and always o., the plan, fifty or
a hundred yards distant from the kopjes.
Wherretummg to our camp over the plam, which was now
bes^^';gM with ^wers, snajragon, lobelia heath, a^^^
and with short shrubs whose blossoms resembled Ral'um, I was
t^rised to come upon a macadamised rou.l. one and a half
r^r^n M^der s'tl.tion. constructed of broken stones from
Sie vriU. the only semblance of a made road which I had
hitherto seen, or indeed ever saw. in the district.
XXXI
KiMBESLEY Relieved
Within an hou.- or two after the Boers had quitted Magers-
lo iiu»c "«^" M.;„- p naid it o V sit by one of the flrst
STntiy^^ing ^^iers It insisted only of
trucks and a guard's van. into which we and one or two
"t^l ;?:rSi for it to start, we heard a report
wh^ we h^peS was trueShough we doubted, that L^^^ay.^^^^^
had been relieved; but we learned on gooc authority that
SOUTH AFRICAN WAR raq
Cronje'i forcei were hemmed in by KuberU'i troop- nenr
Paarde Krul Berg (PaardebergJ.and were there beiiiKattacked
fu **^'"'.y ™''' P'««*» •"«* "TO f^- It w«» aluo ruinoiirtd
that, finding himwlf unable to excape, Cronje had »ent a white
flag with iin offer to iturrender, but on beiiifr invited to i-omc
out and give himself up had changed his mind uiid decided to
light to the end, and it wan conjecturwl that some sly stratn-
gem underlay the move. At any rate he refused Kr.berts'H
offer of an armistice to send away his women uiid children
expecting possibly to be relieved by Jouhort, from whom u
heliographij message was intercepted to the effect that he was
hurrying to hia assisUnce with 10,000 men, und advising him
to read the 88rd Psalm I Consequently our attacks on him
were going on all day iind every day, and our losses were
becoming heavy. Only two officers of the Black Watch, it
was Mid, had escaped unwounded, and Hector Macdonald
had been shot in the foot, but refused to be invalided, and
continued to accompany his men in a cart.
With these encouraging accounts we got into the train and
moved northwards towards the Magcrsfontein (Longcberg)
ranjie. The range was not a chain of continuous niountuiiis,
but a dense labyrinth of isolate*!, crowded, innumerable
kopjes, through which the railway wound, comma tiled on
both sides by the now empty Boer breastworks and entrench-
ments. The line itself was not much injured, but the culverts
had been bk ti up, and the rails displaced and converted into
the shape of bows and corkscrews, while the telegiaph wires
had been cut and thrown down, and the earthenware insulators
had formed a favourite shooting mark in the pastimes of the
Boers. The damage was being rapidly repaired by our
engineers, and pickets were placed at intervals along the line,
the men bivouacking ui dei U . ir brown blankets which were
pinned on bushes as improvised shelter-tents. The kopje
rountry continued by the railway some ten miles or more and
^en gave place to an open grassy plain sloping down to
Kimberley, ot which we began to see the houses and the great
heaps of refuse where the diamond mines were. We crossed
a tram containing the first people, a dozen or so of whites and
blacks, who left the city after the siege.
The fortifications of the Boer besiegers were trenches,
breastworks, and wire entanglements, very strong, and barely
discernible, while farther on those of the besieged were
apparently mere rifle pits, though very numerous and well
placed.
Knaliy, we came to the native location of booths madft of
sacks, twigs, boards, and corrugated iron, then to Beaconsfield
t
ni
i i¥
I30 REMINISCENCES OF THREE CAMPAIGNS
station, and the semi-lunar curve by which '*^»"*»y '~»?^
round into Kimberley. As our tram entered t^e tovm^ta
^burbs showed no signs of any bombardment o;; da"J?8«>^
the shelling ; it was unchanged from what I ^''""'7 '^•
except that all the bustle was gone from it. Glad eyes,
howler watched us as we passed, children grouped and
^^^aCg the line, and every little native hut was flyujg
rS Union Jack. Near Kimberley station ^ere was qu^te
a town of tents where the population who had «>ine mfrom
the vicinity to take refuge from the D"t<*7,f V "^{j.,
^rstetin, which 1 remembered as so f"" °^«Xtf to
in former days, was desolate ; a few wagons stood about, but
^t a™ ul was io be seen, and all its gates were locked, so that
when we W? the train we had to find an exit through a hole
Tn Se fence'and make our way up to the town through the
"ExLpl'Sr'ihe unwonted solitude, the interior of the town
prf^S^ no outward evidences of the siege to which it had
Wn suWected. There was hardly a wrecked house, or a tree
^ d^wn. n^; chip, nor a bullet mark. But the -^^^J^
Zsem aid the houses were in very many «ises ^"t "PJ"^
abandoned There were no signs of lootmg or disorder,
men we reached the centre of the town, we fo«"d the tram-
way cars still running, and we got into one of *em^°'^
was S drawn by three mules. We were there welcomed
r^d^en'metwith^acquaintances; - -•^"rj^^-^ras
oreeted me : P met some men whom he knew , ana as
STwTwire not permitted to pay our own feres. We went
SSfto Ae^WtoiSm.' belonging to the De Beers Com^»y'
the residence of CecU Rhodes to whom I h'«».t„'«t^ °J
introduction from a friend. Rhodes was at l^<=^n' ^f . J
mSui my card and letter, and we were •» topes that he
Sht in^t'^ "s to join him at his table, for we had lujd no food
S^ early morning ; but though we waited for hatfMi hour,
:^d e^f hSted tL we would likesome tfa ?r ^freshment
nothing happened, and at last I l««»^e f ^>«!«'"1 "?" f!
oMted leaving a message that we could wait no lon^.
S ilSneditely we £et t-o memb«s of the crty ^^.
both of them Scots, one from Elgm and the "ther from retK
Wd who kindly guided us back to the town, fbr which we
rewarf^ tC ^th a nip of whisky, a substance neither of
thlm had seenffor many a week. Agam "'^^^.^^
and oroceediniTto its terminus, we discovered a pl»ce where
we JS^Have lunch-The Creamery-a little refreshment
^.T which we entered. Two dainty ladies w«ettere as
attendants, but the shelves and glass cases that should have
SOUTH AFRICAN WAR ,„
contained provisions were aU empty. The poor girls were
bravely doing their best to serve their customers, who were
numerous, with the scraps of food and refreshments that re-
mained. Two cups of tea were brought to us, the milk so
doled out as to produce a famt opalescence in the beverace
and two mmute squares of bread,. without butter, remindine
us by then- size of postage stamps, were neatly cut and placed
before us as carefully as if they had been the finest of cakes
and that was all. I walked round to spy. Nothing 1 But
yes 1 T^re were seven eggs-stale ones, and of these I ordered
t^t ?ir~' '"'•^"'•"S tl»t they should not be more tlian
thuty shillings each, and so we dined. The cost was only
seven shilhngs each, which I considered moderate. But I
have omitted : as a great dainty, a small raised flour scone
ot the siie of half an orange was cooked and produced at lone
mtervals for the more exacting customers, as being the finest
damty the city could produce, and P received one of
them, most prettily served up.
Thus refreshed, ^^e started to hunt for my missing relation
:niough we inquu^ everywhere, we could hear of no recister
of the inhabitants, and even at the military headquarters in
Lennox Street our researches were fruitless. We were about
to abandon our quest in despair, when a kind and helpful
officer, Captam O'M-— , who overheard us, remembered
that when he was visiting some Police Camp, he had heard of
a volunteer whose name was he thought G , a man possess-
ing extraordmary acuteness of vision, so that he was able to
detect Boers at a distance of four mUes, when they were visible
to no one else Getting into telephonic communication with
the camp, he located our man, who was on duty far out on
the veld, but might get off in the evening to meet us at the
Kunberley Club or the T p.m. train for Modder Ri,--r. Captain
O M gave himself a deal of trouble to assist us, for which
we were grateful, and came after us to the Club to report what
he had been able to discover ; he said that the police were
having a rough time but he took my name and address in
case he could help us farther. As we were leaving him, a Cane
cart with a messenger ftom Mr. Rhodes drove up asking us to
dme with him that evening, to which I sent a verbal reolv
explammg why I was unable to do so. So 1 lost the onlv
C^'^cJdes ^ ^''" ^^ °^ ""'''"* "** acquaintance of
Our reception at the Kimberley Club was an imposing one •
we were informed that everything was at our disposal, and an
influential citizen, Mr. B , took us to the 1^, where we
were to be sure to order whatever we desired. Alas 1 The
\
ffi
:H-'
' • il
■'it
:,. I,
J I
,' H:
'^
i .;■
I
a I
I*
1^
132 REMINISCENCES OF THREE CAMPAIGNS
mogniflcence dwindled down when we came to particulars.
There was no soda water. There was no whisky, no ginger
ale, nothing whatever that we asked for except lime juice,
water pumped from the mines, and tea, so we had to have tea
and were grateful for it. We sat on the verandah or strolled
through the town, to see it and its people just relieved from
the siege. The shops were open, but empty. There was
nothing, absolutely nothing, in the windows ; except in some
a few handkerchiefs or towels, the last remnants of their stock,
displayed where formerly exuberantly rich wares had lined the
busy main streets, which latter now showed only a few passers-
by and the horses of the few soldiers who had as yet entered,
held by negro boys under the empty verandahs of the finest
magaiines in the finest streets. Presently a few elderly
civilians of the city strolled into the club, and in rich fat old
voices bragged, damned, and told their tales of what they had
said and done during the siege, or what they would yet do or
thought ought to be done, welcomed others who turned up and
whom they had heard were killed, and made the most of the
situation telling or inventing tales of what had occurred, tales
that would doubtless often be repeated with embellishments
to wondering listeners and be handed down to children and
grandchildren as the wonders of the times that had been, and
of those who had lived through them. Some of these old
fellows I had personally known in former days, and they spoke
freely of their past hopes and fears, and of their anxieties
for the fate of the town which, they said, would in six weeks
more have had to surrender. But now honest gladness was
in every eye, and even the babies and coloured children
advertised in their very looks that their troubles were
over.
Evening came, but brought no G , and at length we had
to go to catch the train. It was merely a lot of trucks for
soldiers going down the line, but P , good liar ! had gone
to the station people and impressed them with the idea that
I was some great swell, and they put a carriage on in front for
me, into which we and some ofiBcers got and had a darkling
ride to Modder. The electric lights were still flashing out their
messages between the two places, as they had done a month
before, for of the wires cut by the Boers only one or two had
been repaired by the engineers, and those were so choked by
military and other work that it would take a month before
any unofficial telegrams would get through from one place to
the other.
SOUTH AFRICAN WAR
»33
XXXII
Conditions at Moooer
ZH^fn^r^'^'l^i"?*^'' marched in the direction of Bloem-
fontein Cronje had for a time escaped from Magersfontein
northwards t« raise the investment of Kimberley. We soon
w^^n^"- 'Tk'' " ^''P ^y, "^'"^ *"= ""^ attempting to escape
was dosed, m the very nick of time, by a rapid dash back from
tTetL' 7i °^ ^"'"'''- ^''?/*'"^ '»'"P''='«^ »»•« enclosu„Tf
the Uoers in an iron ring of foes.
of rirt^T™*".?"'" ^n^^f™"""' "Fxedily found out that eight
C« .. Z.fr "" "mbulance wagons were taken away ftSm
us, as wen as every other available vehicle of any descriptio"
to serve Roberts's forces, who. without tents, on half ™£"
heavily from, wounds and disease around Paaideberir and
Jacobsdal. These events had the result of convertingWfodder
1T» J^ T; ''""'^y 'P'^'-e. neither a field hospiSHor
of Zfi-T ' ""/ ",? '7'''="''t'''8 st^ition, but which partook
Z ^ r ^''/'^^ «™y necessarily fell on Modder River,
S«H ^^!!!^ *,°^° '^' ""*" '°"8 afterwards, when Roberts
^tJ^^^^^S"'"'"', 8°* *'^"8'' t" Bloemfontein, and
r!!lnnv ^-^""il"" ^"''"''y "'mmunication with the Cape
\n^7'- ^''' *««'^»'* «« « "••«'<"■» post Modder shrank
L"*? '"T.'?f """' "l " '"^'°'' ^*"*'°" t° "W* everything
was sent it became of capital importance, had to adapt itself
to aU requm>ments, and to expand and contract as the flo^s
th^A f^"f- P°"""8 '" ^"^ "'' *he means of evacuating
than down the line were more or less available
T.^X ^"f*"* °i P^tie^-tS' t«>. *as not of our own men alone.
Jacobsdal was found m a bad way with typhoid fever among
«^^ T" '?'"'' u T" °^ '^'^ ''^""=^''' ther^ were some seven^
such, densely packed in beds, and many seriously ill, who were
being attended to by German doctow and ambubncesrfor
lu th^"* ""^.""^ "° ^" ^'^'^ *° '°°'' "^t'' them, and
allthese came to form a proportion of the invalids in the
Modder camp hospitals. A medical officer who had been on
duty m the Boer camp told me that they had no surgeons or
provision for the wounded, and that they wei« glad to send
the injured m to be treated by us. j s " «:na
du^^f iT*" jP^"^ ^^°^ ^y 'y^' '" *••« Modder River camp
dunng these days, before Roberts had succeeded in compelUng
i^il
^[ i^ >i
:.}
134 REMINISCENCES OF THREE CAMPAIGNS
the luirender of the Boen at Paardeberg, and in thence
forcing his way to Bloemfontein, I almoat despair of giving
an adequate account.
Of course every possible preparation was made to cope with
Roberts's sick and wounded ; the camps were concentrated
and rearranged on the north of the river into a great medical
city, in which few of the military were to be seen beyond a
small garrison and the soldiers who were passing through.
But it was reported that the health of the medical officer in
charge of the lines of communication had broken down, and
that our chief. Colonel Townsend, had been sent for to assist
him, and this may partly account for some of the conditions
which ensued. In truth, however, it was evident, almost
from the very first, that the then existing army medical
department was unfit to meet the situation. It was an obso-
lete weapon which had been retained for economy when it
ought to have been modernised or replaced, and it now natur-
ally proved unsuited for the services it was called upon to
render.
The events at Modder, mtUalU nuOondu, bore out the
statements of Burdett-Coutts concerning the medical con-
ditions he found at Bloemfontein. I shall here endeavour to
describe the state of matters, but of course can tell only what
came under my own notice, in a limited portion of the camp ;
there must have been nr uch more of which I had no cognisance .
But I was sometimes, by what I personally witnessed, reminded
of the accounts which had appeared regarding the awful
conditions at Plevna in the Russo-Turkish War.
There was a continual inflow of invalids, fluctuating but
steadily increasing, and strenuous efforts were made to dispose
adequately of them by giving them the care they needed,
before sending them down country to Orange River and Cape
Town. The flow was no small one. On the 20th of February
a convoy of wounded came in from Klipdrift and Jacobsdal,
350 in number, and to make room for them and othurs who
were following them it was necessary to evacuate 200 sick by
a common train, 95 of whom were ttom our hospital ; 50 went
to Onuige River and 45 to De Aar ; while 150 were going from
another hospital. An ambulance train was expected to take
fever cases down country. Ifany of those who were sent away
were cases requiring only a few days of rest and treatment to
enable them to resume duty, which was a waste of men, time,
and trains. It was said that ten patients of the new arrivals
had to be put into one tent ; I think this was avoided by
some renmingement, but I know that there were 228 in 85 bell
tents in our hospital that night, i.e. about seven in each tent.
SOUTH AFRICAN WAR
'^^d
l.VS
The patientt had all to lie on the ground, there being neither
•tretchers nor bedg ; no washing could be done among them,
norany renewal of linen.etc. : all layand lived in theiruniformg.
On one day at this time there were only three medical offlcem
to attend to 238 patients, and one of the three had to leave for
(^nge River to accompany a sick train which was being sent
off. Even thus early there was nearly a breakdown. The
night was a cold one, and there was some suffering from men
having to sleep, if they could sleep at all, without blankets.
It would serve no useful purpose to specify how many con-
voys of patients were brought into Modder, or give their dates,
even if accurate information about them were in my possession,
but they were many, and after a short respite they began to
pour in from farther distance-i, such as Paardeberg, continually
by day and night, in numbeix of some 200 at a time. Thus
on the 20th of February, 240 were brought in from Jacobsdal
and beyond in wagons drawn by oxen, mostly open carts, and
so heavy was the work for the draught animals that forty of
the oxen died on the way ; on the 28th 1 noted that between
800 and 400 were brought in from the same direction ; and
on another occasion there were expected to arrive 800 men and
40 officers from Paaideberg, and the medical officers were at
their wits' end as to how to accommodate them in a field
hospiUl intended for 100, for there were neither cooking pots,
nor blankots, nor medicines, nor dressings, for so many, nor
was there any one to dispense the drugs and appliances which •
would be required. These were only some instances which
1 happen to have made a note of, for there was much else to
be done, and still the stream flowed on, and even at night,
when the evenings were coming down, the black silhouettes
of the loaded teams kept drawing in, in what seemed a never-
ending procession. In one day alone 800 men arrived at the
already overcrowded hospitals; another day one hospital
had to admit 400 and another 480.
I can only give these as a few of many instances of what
our daily experiences were. On one occasion we received a
sudden order to strike our camp and move down nearer to
the bridge in case of an attack, for we had been left out in the
waste by the departure of all the other camps. Accordingly
tents were struck, carried over on carts, and pitched on a spot
close to the fever hospital ; our patients were placed in ambu-
lances and brought over, but they were so many that, though
we began to remove at 8 p.m., only half of onr work w,is com-
pleted when it became dark, and half of the hospital was left
far out on the plain. The major and I shared a tent which was
hastily put up in the dark for us. We had among our sick
:i:
•i i'
If
!«;h,
■r>
136 REMINISCENCES OF THREE CAMPAIGNS
tv ' oer prisoners, and in the bustle of changing they were
left unguarded ; one of them made his escape, but turned up
again next morning, probably induced to do no by hunger.
Presiently a convoy of between three and four hundred arri*^
from Jacobsdal, and on this occasion they were transported
partly in ambulance wagons belonging to the bearer companies
and pnrtly in buck-wngons. The lying cases with a few sitting
were in the former, nnd from fourteen to fifteen sitting cases
in each of the latter. After being fed and cared for as well as
was possible, they were admitted and dressed, along with
80 Boer wounded who required the same attention. The
admission was runipleted in something over an hour, and the
dressing took up the remainder of the day. Among them
were one serious wound of the abdomen, and two other similar
wounds where the symptoms were slight or absent, while one
patient had suppuration of the leg and was in so serious a
condition that I advised Cardan's amputation of the thigh,
which was carried out. Most of this convoy, other than the
Boers, were from the Argyll and Sutherlands, the Gordons,
and a Welsh regiment.
On another occasion we got orders to clear every one out of
the field hospital so as to be ready to move on towards Kimber-
ley in two or three days, and made every endeavour to do so,
but found our efforts always baffled. We had to admit, for
instance, 500 fresh cases of sick and wounded after having
despatched two full trains. Elaborate arrangements were
then made to clear out next morning all except about ISO,
when we were informed that a convoy of 70 from the Guards
regiments was on its way and would arrive that day ; while
from Kimberley came a message to say that they were full
there (having received their flnt convoy &om Paardeberg),
and asking us to take over a number from them ; so the ambu-
lance trains we had hoped to utilise were sent up there, and
our best hope was that we might get some of our wounded
packed into them as they passed down again, or into some
other train that chance might send us. The railway was
becoming choked with the sick and wounded, every place was
filled to overflowing, and the whole military movements were
threatened with paralysis. At that time we had still many
fever cases who could not be sent away, there were 56 of them
in hospital that night, and more were being brought in at our
last visit, while so little care could be exercised that one poor
fellow who was being treated in a tent was found wandering
delirious on the veld, having escaped from our field hospital
by crawling out at the back during a heavy storm of rain and
wind. At that particular time the staff, augmented by some
SOUTH AFRICAN WAR
137
civilian doctors who had been sent up to help, consisted of
seven, but of these one was constantly travelling with the
patienU who were being sent down by ordinary trains, while
another was doing duty in the fever hospiUl, so that there were
really only five to dress BOO, and many of them were bad cases,
such as amputations, wounds through the body, wounds
through the thigh-bone or spine or head.
1 quote one more instance of a convoy that came in during
an early morning and forenoon. In it I counted twenty -Ave
common carts as against five ambulances. The patients in it
were complaining bitterly of the way in which they had been
jolted i three had died on the way and had been buried where
they died, one as it chanced at Jacobsdal. One of them had
had a wound of the head, one a wound of the abdomen, and
the third dysentery. A fourth, from the Nnval Brigade, had
typhoid, and him 1 took over to the fever hospital in an almost
monbund condition, and placed him under the care of the
physicmn there.
It would be hard to find in any part of the world more
wretched contrivances for carrymg wounded men than those
in which the patients arrived. Excepting one or two ambu-
lances for the more fortunate, they were ox-wagons of the most
primitive type, roughly painted with the name of the farmer
who owned them, often verminous, only sometimes covered,
or it might be but partially covered, with ragged canvas or
tarpaulin held up by a stick, and on these the wounded were,
many of them, exposed to the scorching sun and thunder
deluges for th.ee days, provided only occasionally with a little
steaw on which to lie. All sorts of wheeled vehicles, springless
of course, were converted into ambulance transport, drawn
by teams of mules, or more generally by the long slow teams
of oxen, with black ' voorloopers ' leading them by the head,
and black boys with long whips Bke salmon rods flogging and
urging them on with harsh throaty yells and quackings.
Some of the wagons were merely square unedged platforms,
such as might have served to carry logs of wood, with broad
lumbering wheels, and over the veld these came jolting,
tilting, and rocking like heaving ships in a swell. Some of
the worst conveyances had no coverings of any sort ; some-
tunes two wagons were lashed together and drawn by the
same team, and aU were filled with men who were sick, men
who had dysentery, men with torn hands and limbs, men with
nactured bones supported by rude laths of splints, or with a
mere Imndage and no splint at all, men shot through the head,
through the chest, through the hip, or through the shoulders
and arms, men in fact with every injury that could be aggra-
m
iff
i
138 REMINISCENCES OF THREE CAMPAIGNS
TBtad by movement, and yet the»e poor lads were lying on the
bare boards, comparativety happy if they oossessed a blanket,
some recumbent, some sitting, most without any covering,
in clusters of suffering humanity, chilled by the night cold,
scorched during the day by the sun, and drenched through by
the tremendous tropical thunder rains that constantly fell,
until their clothes dried on them again, and in this state,
night and day, they rumbled over the rough dusty veld,
ploughed through steep fords, and jolted over rocks. When
at last they came to us, they had the sick, white, pinched faces
of those in deadly pain, some of them with the grim locked
jaw of men sternly bearing the pain that can be borne only
by sheer pluck, and some even helping the others in any poor
way they could. Nearly all were bra\ ,: and uncomplaining.
Now it must be remembered that these were only the ' slighter '
cases who had been sent on, the severer were left in Jacobsdal
or elsewhere, where — so we were told— there were hardly
any blankets, tents, or other necessaries. ' SUghter cases |
though they were, some of them, my notes say ' a great many,'
were really atrociously bad cases, and quite unfit to have been
so transported.
In one convoy nearly all the men who crawled or were lifted
out of the carts had been shot six days before, and during
that time had been more or less ' en route,' or waiting to get
' en route ' ; their actual travelling time in the wagons had
been three days and three nights j some, but certainly not
all, had had their wovmds dressed at Klipdrift, and again by
the German surgeons at Jacobsdal. The German n aterials
were good and their dressings well done, but though every one
along the route had omitted nothing that it was in his power
to do for these poor wounded, their condition was none the
less pitiable. To add to their trials, they had but little food
on the way.
Never to be forgotten by any of those who witnessed them
were the sights of these convoys, which, until it was too dark
to see them, kept arriving, while the plain covered with the
wagons, oxen, drivers, half-naked patients, helpers, and tents,
formed a weird sight under the fading light of the evening
sky. The strain to which the strong fat oxen had been sub-
jected was so great that some of them, so soon as they stopped,
simply lay down and died at once. The only individuals of
the convoys not done up by fatigue were the black drivers
and 'voorioopers' who, despite their toil over the hot veld,
sand, and mud, for days, seemed quite fresh at the end.
Some of the drivers were dandified by feathers in their hats
and other bits of finery, but one did not find the heart
•.i' M
SOUTH AFRICAN WAR
•39
to ku^ at them, remembering the good work they had
done.
To see our poor wounded fellows eome creeping out fh>m
the carts, hardly able to do so, almost moved one to tears.
Some were just able to stand, others were dying, and some had
lost comrades who had succumbed during the journey and
been buried by the way ; and the state in which some of them
were baffles description, for their clothes had become so foul
from their own and their neighbours' discharges, since the
convoys could not be stopped for their necessities, that they
had nothing on but a blanket and helmet, having had to
remove and throw away everything else. But it ought to
be said that, with rare exceptions, their sufferings were most
patiently borne. Occasionally it was difficult to remove
them f^m vehicles, since some of the worst wounded were
stowed away on a sort of top shelves prepared high up in
the awning of the cart by plaiting raw bide ropes across
under the leaky tilt which covered the back part of the wagon.
Of baggage they had next to none, usually none, excepting
th <r rags and possibly a knapsack. Once a smile was forced
tioi.1 the bystanders by the appearing of a common chair,
which the happy owner had somehow contrived to get carried
out to Paardeberg and back, as we conjectured ; but such
relics of civilisation, not to mention luxury, were almost
unique.
Jacobsdal seemed to be inexhaustible ; when we were not
receiving from it convoys of our own wounded and sick,
numbers of wounded Boer prisoners sent from there kept us
employed ; they were poor downcast fellows ; the older
grey-headed men slouched about with hanging heads and
hands in pockets, and the younger sat in their tent doors
discussing their woes. They were a contrast to our own
wounded, who whenever they were able hopped about among
their comrades, glad of the respite from their toils and dangers.
At whatever time the convoys arrived, the wounded were
at once attended to, refreshed with bovril and Liebig, and
their wounds and ailments dressed or prescribed for. Major
C , his officers, and the men of the R.A.M.C. were flying
from one wagon to another the moment they arrived, render-
ing every possible assistance and seeing that nothing was
omitted which care and gentleness could ensure. The slighter
cases were taken at once to the tents, and the more necessitous
laid on the sand until they could have their turn in the opera-
tion tent. Those unable to help themselves were lifted out
on stretchers by the R.A.M.C. orderlies and carried off to
the hospital for treatment through numbers of sympathising
1
l\
l'
?■ J
■■/
■ »
J 11
140 REMINISCENCES OF THREE CAMPAIGNS
byitanden who had gtthered round. A few of the mort
lortunate or cUnuint oases were placed to » double-roofed
Cabul tent, and somehow or other all were soon sheltered
under cover of buildmgs, tents, or marquees, thou||h as a rule
there were about 400 where there were only 100 mtended to
be accommodated, and it was surpriwng how rapidly all were
looked after, and how well it was done where there were so
many ill and so few to help them. Then followed the bustle
of great cooking at the car-^ fires to provide for the wants
of the hundreds who had ...ived ; the butchers were cutting
up the carcases ; the fires smoked ; the pots and kettles
boiled ; and the water-carts were drawn up near at hand to
supply the needs of the kitchens.
The sick and wounded Boers who were brought m by the
convoys under escort received exactly the same treatmen*
as our own men, except that sentries were placed over them ;
todeed, it was sometimes remarked that when Boers were sent
down country they were commonly provided with hnt-class
carriages to which to travel, or second-class at least, while
our own fellows were allotted third-class carriages. In some
other ways mdeed they came off better than our own soldiors,
for on the convoys their fHends had often provided them with
umbrellas agatost the sun and ram, and a comrade was even
allowed to travel with and attend to them ; some of them I
observed come to from Jacobsdal travelling to small light
buck-wagons with mule teams, and well protected from heat
and wet by white umbrellas.
It was only late in the day, or it might be late to the night,
when all the sick and wounded had been attended to, that the
fires were made to provide food for the exhausted medical
officers and give them tea.
As the numbers of invalids mcreased other hospitals! were
sent up to Modder, and civilian doctors arrived to give their
aid, and a special hospiUl was established on the \Ial«nd '
under one of the consultants; but with all these, thtogs fell
far short of the requirements, to various ways. Medical
supplies were deficient ; for many days there was no brandy ;
there was no glycerine ; and other thtogs of that sort were
not to be had. When fresh stores wer sent up, they did not
impress one with a high optoion of thob. who had ordered and
supplied them. Boxes which had been ordered from private
firms had their contents ill-assorted. One box would contam
80 pounds of glycertoe, another only ztoc sulphate and ttoctiure
of ginger, a third only carbolic acid crystals, a fourth Itoen
squares, and so on. One contatoed only wanning pans 1
There was of course no one whose function it was to arrange
SOUTH AFRICAN WAR
M»
Mtd cle«l them out, make solutions, etc , and it was bewildering
for the doctors to have to wade about amongst and select and
prepare these supplies when their hands were ahready overftiU.
Imagine such an offlocr coming hopefully to get something
particularly needful, and having to wait about and open
boxes of 80 to 80 pounds, some of which had only methylated
spirits, some only turpentine, and some only the splints which
would have been invsliable ten days previously, but which
he no longer required ; it was very trying to have this addi-
tional labour thrust on him. The lives of the medical officers
were full of vexations. A patient, for example, required a
saline infusion ; there were no proper means of preparing it,
and when at last it was turned out it was like pea-soup, so
muddy that it would have been fatal to have used it. Another
patient with a cranial injury required instant trephining of
the skull ; it was skilfully done by one of the officers, but
under highly disadvantageous conditions, with a miserable
lantern for light, and with no proper cranium forcipes, only
the common bone forceps from the amputation case.
One would have been very glad to see the Red Cross
properly at work there, but I only once saw any representative
bom it, when a Dutch-speaking Africander, adorned with a
brassard and employed by the Red Cross Society and St.
John's Ambulance Association, turned up and reported that
he had brought up a trujk load of food, clothing, medical
comforts, and such like, all of which, except clothing, were
supposed to be furnished by the army medical department.
' "hen he arrived it was too late ; the worst was over. He
d no transport of his own, but was dependent on the military
JT getting on and distributing his goods, and though the good
man did his best, I seriously think the only service he rendered
us at Modder, at least I heard of no other, was to distribute
some pyjama suits.
Typhoid fever went on rapidly increasing, and was virulent.
The mortality from it in the camp amounted to twenty-four
per hundred cases, though no doubt this great fatality was
due to the milder cases having been sent away, for every one
who could bear the transport was daily hastened down
country in hospital or other trains, in batches of thirty or
forty at a time. Thej were usually mustered at ten a.m.,
when the ambulance wagons turned up to convey them over
to the station. After having been taken across in these,
they had to wait about until one o'clock, when the work of
putting them into carriages began. This was all right for
those who were not severely ailing, as they could creep under
the shade of the trees and sheds about the station, provided
I. y
1^1
4
iii
142 REMINISCENCES OF THREE CAMPAIGNS
it wcN dry, not too hot, and bee bx>m duit stoniit ; but it
WM tiylna for thoie upon the ■tretchen who had to tie bakins
in the anibuUnce wagonii all the time. Their dinner was lent
over to them from the oamp, tinned beef and biicuit, and
eventually all were put into the train. Before it moved off
each man had food and water and a pint of milk lent with
him, and each compartment contained nix or leven men.
Bxcept what they carried, there wan commonly no water on
the train, either tor lavatory purposex or for drinking, beyond
what might be begged from the engine-driver, and not the
least important function of the doctor who accompanied the
train was to b^ for this supply. But it dkl sometimes happen
that no doctor was sent with them on their k>ng journey of
many hours, and even of days.
The strain thrown on every one by the events cu" r h'-ww days
was terrible, and affected both combatants and ncii combat-
ants. One military officer whom I knew got into such a state
of excitement, shouting out, though he was as brave a man
as any, that ' 00,000 Boers were coming over the hill,' pointing
and gesticulating to emphasise ' .s illusions, that he had to be
sent down to Cape Town. A major commanding a bearer
company went alto(,Hher r^f! uis head and became quite melan-
ehoUcTand I heard oi' 1. <j other instances of insanity among
officers. This, as ha< ' b<ien forecasted by Von Bkxik, was one
of the results to be anticipated trom the fatigues and anxieties
of the altered conditions of warfare. From the unexag^erated
account given above of what I myself saw, an approximately
accurate idea can be formed of what had to be endured l^
those serving on the Modder River.
xxxni
MOHX ABOUT MODOER
It was fortunate for those engaged in the gloomy work at
Modder River that we were cheered by the progress of the
war under the conduct of General Roberts, and that other
things gave us variety and broke the sad monotony.
On the last day of February we heard that at Paardeberg,
Cronje and all his forces had surrendered, that he had come
forth into a square formed by the Highland Brigade and given
himself up. A room in the house at Modder called the ' Hotel,'
belonging to a Mr. Glover, and which had been Methuen's
headquarters, was forthwith prepared for Cronje and another
for his wife, who had been captured ak>ng with him and was
said to be wounded. About noon of the same day he was
SOUTH AFRICAN WAR ,43
brought into Moddcr River in a four-wheeled earriuc with
«»*«. •ccomPMiled by hi* weeping wife and a youna
nun. The City of London Imperial Vohinteen fonned a
guard of honour and received him with a general lalute,
prewnting armi while the buglca played. Much coniideration
wa. »hown to him, and loitering in the road oppoiite hii room*
w»i forbidden, ao that hU feeling* might not be hurt by any
diiplay of vulgar curioiity.
fti* captured force., 8679 in number, were next brought in,
and confined in a camp of tents enclosed in a fence of barbed
wire, round which armed (entries were placed a! .^ost intervals.
««" when we visited them were very jolly, well fed, and
JWB chutered round the water-carts enjoying themselves.
We WW no women and children among them, though there
WMe laid to be some. I undetatood that some more men were
tmnight in later, making the total captuK* up to 4400 On
close acquaintance the captured Boers were not delightftil ;
after what they had gone through it was perhaps natural that
the *inell in their camp *hould have been bad, but their habits
were dirty too foul to be told of here. They were inclined to
be boastful, and mdulged in taU Ulk of fighting to the last
and re«i«ting at the capiul*, Bk)emfontein and Pretoria,
which accorded rather ill with so large a body of strong un-
wounded men surrendering without at least a single desperate
jOTtie to break through, as they themselves had just done
Tliey told us many interesting things; one of these 1 remember,
and it may have been true, to the effect that Cron je had always
round hun a bodyguard of six selected marksmen, and that
in the Magersfontein Uttle the seven were at one time cut
01 and encireled by a body of the Black Watch who had
•urpn»ed them while they were upon a kopje. The seven
gave thenuelve* up for lost when the HighJanders, who had
not noticed them, departed, and they were able to rejoin their
comrades. When they were surrounded at Paardeberg, they
•aid, ea^ man had to dig a pit for himself deep enough to
conceal hun, and in it they had often to remain for three days
on end, their sole amusements being to smoke and read their
huge Bibles. In our prisoners' camp they seemed generally
to be busied m theu- tents praying and singing psalms. They
WCTe sent down country as quickly as possible in batches of
oOO at a time.
A few days after Cronje's capture we were also gladdened
by the authentic news of the relief of Ladysmith and the
evacuation of Colesberg by the Boer commando there.
We saw many phases of African climate, and the*e not
always kmd ones, at Modder River, and I became convinced
1^-
III
I'
1 J'-
144 REMINISCENCES OF THREE CAMPAIGNS
that though South Africa cannot rival the Soudan in the
matter of flies, it can yet equal it in centipedes, scorpions,
and tarantulas, and even surpass it in wind storms, thunder,
lightning, and deluges of rain. Howling dust storms were
fluent, during which little could be done but sit m the tents
and await their subsidence ; reading and writing were out
of the question; and clouds of locusts accompanied the
storms, or intervened, the animals flitting like moths en-
deavouring to fly against or sideways to the wind, but drifting
before it fifteen to th=rty feet above the ground, resembli^
brownish snow, and casting their shadows on the tent walls
as they passed. On the 24th and 25th of February so great
were the wind and rain that four or five of the hospital tents
and marquees were blown down, and the patients, some of
them helpless and unable to move, had to be picked up out
of the mud in the dark and conveyed into our mess or other
tents. During these deluges, which continued all day and
night, it became very cold, and everything was wet, including
clothing and bedding, while the ground was saturated. One
day we had just returned from dealing with a case of secondary
hemorrhage from an amputation stump, where the common
femoral artery had to be tied, and were resting at sunset,
when we observed a thunderstorm coming up, and after looking
to my tent ropes and pegs I had returned to the marquee,
where we had some food, and the major and I were at the door
which faced the west admiring the vivid lightning as it ap-
proached, when in the space of one second a flush of hissmg,
blinding, and soaking rain, as solid as a bucketful of water,
dashed against us, and came flying into the door, drenching
us instantly. A squall of wind accompanied it, tearmg up
the whole of one side of the marquee, which fluttered and
flapped and thundered in the gale. As we flew to the poles
and clung to them to prevent everything from going, we
looked through the opened side to where our camp was,
distant a few yards, but the occasional glimpse of a tent
through a grey sheet of water and small hail was all we could
discern. The crashing thunder, hissing rain, and flapping
canvas combined into one common roar in which each special
sound could not be discriminated, and the lightning continued
to flash every second or two in the rapidly darkening night,
where save for its illumination nothing at all would have now
been visible. The major heard a marquee near at hand go
down, for he was one of those who missed nothing, and called
for volunteers to carry the officers who were under it into
shelter. All who were in our marquee followed him out and
found a wetflat massflapping on the ground where the marquee
SOUTH AFRICAN WAR ,45
^ "l!^' n ^' ™«»T^ «>«» pulled out the wounded officers
who^ all been in their beds, some of them abnost nS
heaped anythmg upon them, waterproof or othTmise t^t
wouM cover them, and bo« them on their beds t™gh tte
deluge into our half-d^manUed marquee. Excepting mvsSr
haymg had the foresight to throw on a mStoSi S
every one was drenched to the skin in the p™ xfwe
were oirrymg over the last bed. behold I hTtfoT the^mn
seemed to smk into the ground before our eyes ' tents
shnveUed and sank down like tinfoil melting to a fi^.'a^L
^fortv ^* '^"'*'' ''^« r ^*°°^ «ond«.stricto, thtty
or forty tents were gone, and in their place were sodden Zt
masses of writhing patients covered \riS Te^ 3es w^t
S^Z' 1:^ """"^ °iif"* "^P**- Naked men struffi oTt
bhnded men. wounded and helpless men. and men with
^rr^*'!/'^"'/"""* ""^ 8««°«d, and an tosTne n^,^
who had been tied to a tent pole shouted and sWe^S, wUk
down ever came the torrents of solid water. From eV^
quarter there seemed to rise ftom out the ground pTn^Tf
and the thundCT stunned us at rapid internals as it ci^Jd
overhead. Such a thunderstorm I had never i^n^ore
but I was mimediately to see one j, ^, worse. - '
We gathered our wits and set to work. There was no n^H
of lamps, the continuous and vivid flashes^r r sufficient
we w4^ tf S °^*7 '''^'"«> '^^ P""^ ««'«' ^^
we wished to assist, and commg in the mud on a shatt^iwl
and bandaged head or Umb, a! we groped for the heS
unfortunate^ Soon others came to help^ stretchers w»^
got, wet^ sodden and soiled as they were evemWng w"
welcomed that would carry a man, and we to led till the opeT
tion and mess tents were paved with patients like slates u^n
kTuf^- «^"y y«tjt»'''''n8 tent was filled. By the ttae
that all this was fimshed tne rain had passed I hasten.^ f«
get my dry Norfolk jacket and cap. peSed the maW to
aUle fZ'.K^ •"" wet c othi g a„d ^^ „„ ^.^^ ^ ^^^
a little from the now chilly night air. and together we went
over to the other officers' marquees. AU sav? one w«e ftit
I found a cousm of mine who had been wounded at Paarde^ril
emergmg m hu ^ual good humour, hopping on his™ l^f
^ hi^^ ■". *' "^"^^ *° «»'•'" ** «»tte™d art^Tes
of his kit and accoutrements which were lying in the mud
He was an inmate of a marquee which had partly wSaS
the storm, and finding him so content and pat^tl hKn
good-night, went to my tent, which I foS^d^tuf ZidS^
I'i
' ' r
ft
/ 3 ;.^' 'I
146 REMINISCENCES OF THREE CAMPAIGNS
turned out all the dry clothes and stockings that I could spare,
and when we had stripped and clothed the wet officers and
men, had a bowl of Maggi soup and turned in.
The lightning was still playing about, rendering the sky
bright and the tents dark, and the tents white and the sky
dark, alternately, and having looked once more to my tent
pegs I lay watching these sights until I fell asleep. But it
was not for long. Towards midnight I was awakened by a
dash of thunder-rain against the canvas, and fouind another
storm passing straight overhead. The lightning had become
so continuous that it was a constant quivering light, trans-
parent through the wet tent walls, while the wind roared
and tossed the tents, and the thimder overhead made the
ground shake and tremble. Then came a roar like the sea
in full fury, and my tent pole wavered, bent over, and came
down across my waist, pinning me to the ground on my
stretcher, and immediately I found myself unable to move.
The only thing to be done was to lie still until some one found
me, so I lay with the canvas over my face smothering me,
felt pools of water run from it down into my ears, down under
my body, and up along my feet and legs. The thunder
continued to shake eve^hing, the lightning every instant
or oftener to pour out its streams of Ught, and the canvas
flapped horribly in the gale. It seemed as if the last day
were come. From the commotion I knew that many other
tents were down, and that in time I should be foimd and
rescued, if I lay still, for the ' Professor ' would be sure to
be missed. But the time appeared to be endless, and indeed
it seemed as if it were impossible for any one to escape the
lightning, and I did think that perhaps my own last hour had
come. Eventually I heard the voice of the major asking if
any one were there ; others were with him ; and when I replied
that a fragment of humanity still existed, the pole shook and
was rais«i from my body to my great relief, and the good
major somehow found his way under the canvas and struggled
to get the pole vertical. At first I was unable to assist him,
but presently my breath came back in gasps, I hauled on my
boots, the tent was raised by our joint exertions and I crept
out. M^hat a sight met me ! liie ground was streaming
fire upwards like hundreds of torehes, at least it seemed to
flash upwards, and in the dead of night, while the rain cas-
caded, the thunder raved, and the lightning appeared to
escape from every yard of ground, I beheld the ruins of our
canvas city. The scene was beyond description, and I need
not dilate upon it. The major had his tent blown down with
all the othors, but he managed to struggle out and assemble
SOUTH AFRICAN WAR ,47
« rejcue ]^ Soon men were sent over from the other
camps, and tents rose up and resumed shape, and hundreds
joimng m the hammermg and assisting others
We put the major's tent to rights, and then repeated the
a^Z^^t !!?r!' '° «'"*"8 the injured and^ck into
their own restored tents or new ones which were hastUy pitched
^ 1^"^'"°"'^ °-^°^- '" ^^^ intervals of which we
f^H 1 I Tl^"' "** ^°^ P'*y'"8 "'°"d to their God,
and the wails of the msane negro who, lashed to the pole, was
lying underneath his fallen tent. ^
Not till aien had I time to hunt up my cousin. Lighting
L^^'J "•"* *°- ^^J^V^'^- It lay like a newIpaiiS
on a road on a ramy day. and from beneath it 1 CS
hun crewlmg as cheerful as ever, to hop about on bis
somd foot and flsh up his belongings from the mud. By the
light of my lantern we retrieved most of them ; he Umned
over to my tent whither we carried his things, and on the SS
ground on one side of It he made his bed and lay down, hoping
doubtless, as I did, that we might be able to lie ii pS^
there imtil the mornmg. From my portmanteau I produced
my last tr^sured tm of Huntley and Pabner's biscuits and
Lf.'!^ J '=^°~'"*«', ^nd .^"^ found in the mud a
waterbottle and some lemon juice, we both, joined presently
Bv ^.Tl°J\r^^ "'•1* r '=°»?'J"«1 " '»™rious meat
By this tune the storm had passed over. A kind quarter-
mastCT lent me from somewhere a damp rubber sheet and a
wet blanket; the former I spread over my soaked bed
having mopped up with a sponge the worst pools in it ; the
latter I wrapped round me, and after the inevitable smoke
we toy down and soon were so sound asleep that we did not
awake until the sun shone into the tent, the flies began to
settle on our heads, and a new day had begun. Our ablutions
were done after a fashion, and like wet ■ sps we crept out
mto the sunny air, lugged out our water-lodged clothing and
spread it out on the tent walls and the ground to dry Mv
cousm found somewhere a dry pair of socks which he save
me, for which I was truly thankful, for all of mine had been
given the evemng before to the wet invalids. The major
mvited my cousm to mess with us during his stay, and thouah
aJun^^iT** *^'' *** P"^^"^ °^ company to messing is
During the alarms and discomforts of the night the be-
haviour of the sick officers and men was magnMcent, with
the smgle exception of an old Highland colo^ who slipped
at us like a savage terrier dog whenever we offered to 1^
I m
lilh
"■1 I
;i
ftiA'L.
148 REMINISCENCES OF THREE CAMPAIGNS
him, and would let only his servant touch him. As he seemed
to prefer lying all night under the fallen marquee, we propped
up a part of it with sticks and left him ; what became of him
I do not know, but whether or not he spent the night under
the marquee, which was so wet and broken that we could
not raise it in the obscurity, he had gone into some other
shelter when we went to looii for him in the morning. But
for the others I was fllleU with an intense admiration, as,
besides the discomforts I have attempted to describe, some of
them were very sorely wounded, and to be so served after
their awful ride from Paardeberg must have tested the for-
titude of the pluckiest of men.
After a beautiful forenoon, in which we were able to lunch
in the open air, we had in the afternoon the worst hailstorm
I saw in South Africa. It began by looking black over
Magersfontein, where heavy rain was visibly falling. We
looked to the tent pegs and laced up the door just as the storm
reached us. It was, however, not a monstrous repetition of
the night before, but an interesting variation. There was
no wind, but lightning followed by a trash of rain. The
north side of the tent had the appearance as if showers of
missiles were being thrown against it, and from where we stood
in its interior it looked as if it were everywhere being struck
by volleys of musket balls, for each spot which was struck
emitted a spurt of spray right across the tent as if it were blown
from the mouth of a gun. My cousin peeped through a chink
of the door anH called to me to come and look. The ground
was white with hailstones as big as large gooseberries, or even
small potatoes, and these were the projectiles which bad been
battering on our tent. When the shower began to pass and
we could look freely out, not a soul was to be seen, only the
horses and mules were kicking and lashing out as the hail
struck them like whips. On examining the hailstones, their
average measured diameter was one inch ; all were much of
one size ; the largest were Ij by Ij by 1 inch, and their
structure was in layers like onions, the ice being alternately
opaque and translucent ; they weighed on an average over a
quarter of an ounce. When melted they left on the ground
marks of concentric crusts resembling the section of a corru-
gated onion.
These were specimens of the weather at Modder, and no
doubt it was similar where Roberts's army was lying round
Paardeberg or advancing eastwards across the Orange Free
State.
SOUTH AFRICAN WAR
'49
XXXIV
Trek to Kimberlxt
°~ l^, T'^y ,^» Modder to Kimberley I gained experience
of trekking, the sort of travelling which prevaUed in South
A&im in the early days. On Saturday the 10th of March
we at last got our final orders to depart at 4 p.m., and long
before that tune our men commenced the loading of the flvl
buck-wagons forming our transport, each of which was capable
of carrymg easily 8000 pounds, and if necessary even SoOO.
Une of the wagons served to carry the tents of our field hos-
pital, a second all our medical and surgical stores, and the
remammg three the baggage of the officers and men : the
iMding occupied three hours, so that we were ready long before
the appointed time, and had the usual additional delays,
waitmg for three and a half hours, before we drew out of
Modder^ The major, two officers, and myself accompanied
one part of the procession, and a prolonged dust storm which
enveloped us removed any lingering regret we might have
otherwise had at quitting the place where we had so long been
busied, where we had lost, moreover, by death or sickness,
already over one third, nearly a half indeed, of our company.
Our last view of the plain which, not many weeks previously
had supported a populous canvas city of 80,000 inhabitants
was over a naked, desolate expanse which showed only the
crosses of the dead in the two little cemeteries, with the lumes
upon them aheady half obliterated by the weather. The
whole place was horrible, its river putrid and stinking from
the carcases, mostly of horses, which had been washed down
from Paardeberg and elsewhere, and stuck, bloated and
ml ' °" *^"y **°"*' shallow, or foid.
There were mishaps before we reached the rendezvous a
few mUes towards the north-east. A Scotch cart, loaded at
the last moment with odds and ends, and tacked on by its
shafts to— of course— the most heavily loaded wagon, proved
to be of greater weight than the oxen could draw, stuck fast
in the d^p sand before we had gone half a mile, and had to
be transferred to another wagon which was abeady half a
mUe ahead. Next it was found that the water-carts had not
their mules inspanned, and one of these broke loose and had
to be hunted for half an hour over the veld before it could be
<«ught, by which time the other wagons were two miles in
aavanre. And there was riding backwards and forwards
and stoong language, and anxiety to our chief, before all was
^ Pi
I;
I ■
150 REMINISCENCES OF THREE CAMPAIGNS
When at last we reached the rendezvoui, we found we were
to be part of a train of over forty wagons, which had to be
started one by one, forming a line along the road we were to
follow. We should have bad, in addition, an armed escort of
Ave -and -twenty of the Noithamptons, who had been detailed
to ensure our safety, but somehow they had gone astray,
and our sole protecton; as we marched through a part of the
Free State territory were the three or four mounted transport
riders who accompanied us.
Each wagon of the procession had a pair of oxen yoked to
its pole, and in front of them fourteen others attached in
pairs to a long iron chain extending from the pole, the whole
being about forty yards in length. Every wagon had two
drivers, the front one, the ' voorlooper,' guiding the oxen by
pulling them by the nose, the second, the driver proper, was
usually seated on the box ; both were armed with long bam-
boos, like salmon rods, furnished with long lashes, and heartily
the two discharged their function of flogging, and fearful
noises they made with the cracks of the great whips, the
reports when they struck the sides of the animals being
like rifle shots, and with their own harsh throaty sounds of
'At6mm,' 'Aat,' 'SturM,' 'Gumaal,' and so forth; at least
the sounds resembled, to my unfamiliar ears, words like these.
The wagons started off, one behind the other, forming a line
about a mile long, and its snaky length wound its way over
the plains, the foremost end being visible from the rear only
by the huge column of dust it cast up, in which r II details
were lost. The transport riders, all of them whites and good
horsemen, galloped from end to end and from place to place
along the sides, keeping order and preventing the line from
breaking into pieces, by stopping the front to await the rear
or by hurrying the latter up. The oxen went bravely, about
as fast as a man could leisurely walk, sometimes going at
a run for a short space, but maintaining on the whole the
same average speed, unless for momentary rectifications, until
our first stopping-place was reached. When, as sometimes
happened, an ox fell sick, it was simply detached and driven
along with us, unless it were very ill, when it was left on the
veld to die or feed itself well again, as the case might be.
Having been unable at Modder to procure a horse, I accom-
panied the march on foot, and as we passed away towards
the north, by the eastern end of Magersfontein, the sun set,
the light faded, the plain grew dark, and the moon and stars
alone lit us on our way.
We continued onwards in the weird moonlight until 9 p.m.,
when we drew up at a place[^^lled Bissett's farm, to rest
SOUTH AFRICAN WAR ,5,
^hput ouUpanning. and this wai done as follows: the
leading wagon draw to one side of the road, and the next two
cMBe up on Its outer side, forming a trio alongside one another,
with the oxen aU in their places in the direction of our advance,
as If pr«)ared to start_ three abreast. The three wagons which
toUowed were suniUrly ranked on the other side of the load :
behmd these were arranged the rest, by threes and threes,
all symmetncally and beautiftilly done, so that they could
easily start agam without delay and in good order. The oxen
w«e not fed. but stood motionless and ghostly in the dark
quiet m their harness, and rested thus, one or two of the moi^
weaned lymg down.
The farmer Bissett was an honest Scot, who pronounced
Cronjes Mme as if it were spelled ' Kronjee,' and he told us
that Cronje was a half-breed, and that he used to bastinado
his troops with a big whip. Bissett said he had sent word to
Methuen advismg hun to outflank Magersfontein instead of
attacking it frontaUy. but that his advice was not taken,
though he had constantly sent in accounts of how the Boers
could be circumvented. Roberts, however, acted on that
principle. It seemed that Bissett had been taken to Jacobsdal
on an accusafaon of having poisoned some of the Boers' horses,
but was let on on giving a bribe of £40.
After the halt had been properly organised the drivers
and those of our men who had climbed upon the wagons got
down, whites and blacks employed themselves in kindUng little
llrra. coffee pots were put on and a meal was made by moon-
l«lit ; then pipes were lit and aU prepared to obtain some
sleep. We threw our coats over the barbed wire fence which
tliere hned the road, got over it ourselves, spread out a blanket
or coat on the pound after kicking aside all the stones we could
reel with our feet, got something to serve us as a pillow
wrapped something else round us, and fell asleep under the
radiant stars which, as the night was fortunately a fine one
blaied steadily without a twinkle, and amongst the camomile
scent of the crushed heathery herbs we rested until Bam
when the oxen began to stir and the men to move, and we
roused ourselves to continue our march. The moon and Venus
had then set in the west, but Jupiter had risen before the sun,
and a beautiful spear of the zodiacal light went up into the
heavens almost to the zenith, not more than 10 degrees off
the perpendicular, its base resting on the eastern horizon
where the day was shortly to break.
Our first march had been for twelve miles, our second or
mormag one was to be about six more, and in the same order
m which they had stopped the wagons moved slowly off into
i. I'.Jj
r< 1^
11
:' tl
Ijiti,
I
152 REMINISCENCES OF THREE CAMPAIGNS
the duk, until daylight came in at five, when we halted at
Scholse's Nek for the day ; and thii time the oxen were out-
spanned. No longer on a well-marked road, we were out on
the open veld, the halt was to be for the greater part of the
day, and the oxen were to be fed, therefore the arrangements
differed tiotn those for a temporary halt, and were managed
in this fashion. The wagons were drawn up close beside and
parallel to one another, like cigars in a box, with the ox teams
in flront of them, also parallel. There were three such cohimns
of twelve or thirteen wagons in each. Then the cattle were
cast loose, the chains ttom the wagon poles stretched out on
the ground straight in front, bales of hay were shaken out in
various places, men lit fires, made breakfast, and settled down
to wait until the heat of the day was over and the cool of the
evening had come. The oxen f&st greedily ate their own hay,
then tried to make raids on that of their neighbours, which
the negroes prevented them from doing by shouts and whips,
and when all they could find was consumed, the beasts strayed
away over the veld to nibble at the scanty pasture, while the
men lay down in some shade to sleep away the day. I have
spent many a bustling day which had less real Interest in it
than this one which I passed underneath the buck-wagon,
sheltered by its shadow from the hot sun, at' I lay laiily watch-
ing the naked kopjes, the waterless plains around them with
their few twigs of shrubs and scanty blades of herbage, ai.d
ever the stretches of barren sand between. The dust and
smell of Modder were hardly out of my nostrils, and I could not
help thinking what a hopeless country it seemed for civilised
man to dwell in. As it chanced, in turning up my little pocket
Horace, 1 found his most appropriate description of Africa :
' leonum arid* nutrix.
Pone me pigris ubi nulla campis
Arbor aestiva recreatur aura,
Quod latus mundi nebulae malusque
Jupiter urguet ;
Pone iub cturra nimium propinqui
Solis in terra domibus negata.'
Towards four o'clock in the afternoon an indefinite bustle
began to be perceived in the laager, negroes crept out from
beneath the wagons, and looked arounU the veW. Then the
cattle were seen drifting nearer to us, coming spontaneously
closer, and, as if they realised their duty, breaking up into their
several herds. Into these the Kafirs plunged, and by strokes
from lusty arms each soon separated his own team of thirty -
two cattle from the great herd of perhaps 1200 or 1800.
SOUTH AFRICAN WAR
•53
Eadt teun was then driven up by iti two Kafln and TBii|ed
in • line lacing one way, like a company of loldien, beiide it*
own particular wagon. A noote was thrown round the bomi
of each of the oxen, and by it they were puUed into their places
in pairs along the ' trek tow ' or chain ; a beam was thrown
across each pair in ftont of the shoulders and made fast to
the horns by a flgure-of-eu[ht cord ; a prong on each side of
the neck and a cord round the throat steadied all, and trota
this the pull was obtained. The hinder pair of oxen was
attached to the wagon pole, the others were coupled up in
front of them to the chain, and all was ready. They weie
started oft in the same order as that in which they had stopped,
and the evening ' trek ' began.
The experiences of the preceding evening were repeated ;
we walked on in the sun, in the sunset, in the dusk, and in the
dark, and the dusty line crawled on until we were well-nigh
sick of it. Every one who could climbed on to some wagon
or other, and I truly believe I was the only individual in the
whole train who walked every step of the way. Those driving
or riding eventually tired of doing so, and the major and some
of the others walked with me for the last four miles. We were
all weary men when we saw the foremost wagons draw up, as
formerly, on the sides of the road, and learned that we had
arrived at Wimbledon, where we were to bivouac for the ni^t.
Already we had guessed that we were close to and were circling
round the western side of Kimberley, for the electric light on
the Bultfontein mines guided us as to the lie of the town.
Of our escort we had seen nothing j we subsequently learned
that instead of protecting us from the Boer raiders they had
taken a different direction and a worse road, and the only
evidence we had of their existence was the sight of their leader's
baggage which we carried.
The second night of our bivouacking was a repetition of the
first, exc^t that we had no mosquitoes, and did not start
again until five a.m., when we set off as before. It shortly
became light, and in the lessening dusk we passed Beacons-
field, a suburb of Kimberley, left its racecourse and mcestand
on '-ir right hand, ascended a stony elevation where our
wa, stuck by their wheels getting behind large boulders
and ying to be prised over them by iackscrews, and reached
the high-lying plateau of Newton Common, immediately
outside the breastworks and sandbag redoubt by which the
city h.id been fortified on that side during the siMe. txmg
as it did between the city and the surrounding hiUs heM by
the Boers, Newton Common had been the scene of many
combats between the besiegers and defenders, and on it, a
* ']
m
ill
;'fll!ll
154 REMINISCENCES OF THREE CAMPAIGNS
clear and brecsy xpot, we loon let up our tents, IneakCMted,
and were rejoined by two of our eomndei, who had remained
to flniih some duties at Modder River, and had oome on by
train.
XXXV
ABOVND KWBXMJtY
Whsn our field hospital arrived in Kimfaerley, Mafeking, a
town a couple of hundred miles to the north, was still invested
by the enemy, and the railwoy which connected the two was
in their hands. Forty miles trom Kimberley this line of rails
crossed the Vaal River, which divided the Orange Free State
trom the Transvaal.
Methuen may have had twelve to fifteen thousand men
under his command in Kimberley, while the Boers had perhaps
nine thousand ranged along the Vaal. Mrthuen lost no time
in commencing operations by moving out his forces so as to
sweep ott all the Boers who intervened between him and the
Vaal, and occupied with little or no resistance the small
towns of Boshof, forty miles to the north-east, Warrenton on
the Vaal, the same distance due northwards, and Barklay,
just across the Vaal twenty-five miles to the north-west.
Thus the enemy were soon driven to occupy practically the
line of the northern bank of the great river. It was con-
jectured by some of us that our function would be in the first
place to relieve Mafeking, but as time went on this plan, if it
had ever been fixed upon, was altered.
Although Roberts, who was now advancing on Bloemfontein,
was less dependent on having to send lick his sick and
wounded in our direction, and Modder had no longer an
existence as a medical centre, yet there were many invalids in
Kimberley, and more were arriving, while there was a con-
siderable deficiency in medical resources. Numbers of volun-
teer civilian surgeons were sent up with the supplies which
were required, and stationary hospitals were formed in the city,
while the field hospitals were prepared as much as possible for
mobile work in the field, so as to move forwards in the lightest
order, without any tents, with a minimum of transport, each
hospital being allowed only two buck-wagons, and each officer
permitted to have but 8S pounds of baggage. 1 thought
myself fortunate in bemg able to secure a small patrol tent,
and to purchase at the cost of SM a Basuto pony and a light
buggy which would carry myself and my few belongings,
before we got our orders to move on the a»th of March.
While we were at Kimberley it was a source of delight to
SOUTH AFRICAN WAR
155
•11 of lu, after the imperftet nnitetion of Modder, to hav*
nippUet of water which we oould drink without the conttant
thought that we might be twallowing typhoid death, that we
were able to touch our lipt with our bathing and washing
water in safety, and that cleansing our teeth was no longer
done at the peril of our lives, which was ever present to all of
us at Modder ; and it made us comparatively light-hearted
to be fkeed bom that particuUrity of the horrid valley of
death. Yet even in clean Kimberley the same maladministra-
tion as rendered Modder so pestiferous sometimes threatened
to reproduce similar conditions. The slovenliness with which
camp sanitation was attended to was almost incredible.
Though we arrived early on a Monday morning, with sixty
patients, most of whom were suffering ttom dysentery or
diarrhcea, it was Wednesday evening, three days and two
nights later, before any latrines were properly fitted up, while
for the first twenty-four hours there were none at all, and the
ground around was rapidW becoming a cesspool. With an
undermanned medical staff and no special sanitary corps, it
could not weU be otherwise, despite the efforts made to provide
a remedy, and the temperature, which was 8S degrees in the
shade, favoured the dissemination of such diseases.
Some convoys of patients, though fewer than at Modder,
were still coming in. In one of them there was only one
medical man to accompany 480 patients ; many of these had
dysentery so badly that it was beyond their strength to leave
the wagons for their necessities even had it been possible to
stop the cimvoys for the purpose, their evacuations had to
be made over the sides of the carts or even when lying within
them ; the water buckets were used as closets and were fiill
of their soil when they arrived ; and one of the worst cases
of dysentery had his clothing covered from head to foot with
his own defecations. Disease was rampant everywhere, and
probably the Medical Corps suffered more ttom illness and
deaths than any other ; in our own field hospital the com-
mandant considered that nearly all his men had had distinct
typhoid fever, though many of them were slight cases.
All this was r jt the fault of the medical officers ; they were
most indignant and outspoken about such a state of matters,
but what could the overworked and undermanned staff do
where no sufficient provision had been made in advance to
meet such conditions 1 I often thought that my Portsmouth
Address was as milk compared with their condemnatory
remarks. One esteemed ..nd most devoted officer expressed
openly the hope that a history of the medical aspects of the
war in all their naked truth might some day be published.
\ ft j-
:> \i
i
i\k.
IS6 REMINISCENCES OF THREE CAMPAIGNS
>nd lomc one meet with Mrere puniihment. Another, and
he was pohape the ablett offloer of the R.A.M.C. whom I met,
called it inhuman to uie men to flght our battla and then
treat them thui when they were aick ; and a third, who had
only recently joined ua, and had not pemonally seen half of
what we othen had witnessed, waa itrong in hia condemnation
of those who had neglected the reforms that had been urged
upon the War Office for years.
It was impossible for me to obtain an exact account of the
numbers of the sick and wounded, but beiides those who were
in the civil hospital, perhaps a hundred or so, there were no
fewer than eight hospitals in the town filled with them, the
Masonic Hall, the Catholic Charities, Drill Hall, etc., each
containing 50 or 60, while one field hospital heki SOO and
another lOO enterics, and so on. I incline to think that 1100
or 1800 Would have been the lowest total estimate.
The Red Cross here began to be of some use. The nursing
sisters of the Public Schools Hospital assured me that it had
been of much benefit to them in providing clothing and such
like necessaries for the patients there, all of whom were military
sick and wounded, and I especially noted this, as up to then
I had not seen anything conrrniendable in its work.
At Kimberley other voluntary aid came in. An American
field hospital was brought up country and put together as
its parts arrived ; it was placed nominally under the command
of an officer of the R.A.M.C., and wau very well provided,
though, owing tu the presence of its donor, who used it more
as a source of comfort and adventure for himself than for the
unrestricted good of the invalids, it was not of any great utility
so long as it was under my observation.
As far as time permitted, I studied the defences which had
protected Kimberley during its sequestration. The entrench-
ments were very shallow and open to artillery fire, and con-
trasted badly with the efficiency of the Boer trenches beyond
them. But I have already told of the difference when describ-
ing Magersfontein. The major and I went out to examine
Cuter's Ridge, which had been the scene of an action where
Captain Scott Turner was killed. We went to the south-west
over the veld, which was there very rough, and notwith-
standing that clouds of locusts were so dense that it was
difficult for us to see where we were going, succeeded in
reaching it under the guidance of G , who had been one
of the party from Kimberley who carried out the attack, had
gone back later with some comrades, and during the dark
been successful in recovering Turner's body. Of the sixty who
formed the assaulting force, only fifteen had returned un-
SOUTH AFRICAN WAR ,57
wounded. Whoi we reeehed the Boer defence*, we found
them • nun of loophoied walk where the farmhouie had
•tood, and a lenet of trenehei and redoubu, with a serai-lunar
wndbag emplaoeni«nt for a great gun. The proprietor Mr
Carter was oh^rfiiUy trying to make a habiution out of the
rum. of what had been hu houie, and he was good enoush
to acoompaiiy u. and show us the enemy's fortifications.
They were skUfully placed ak>ng the crest of the ridge, facini-
Kimberiey, and commanded its outposts at a distance <rf
about aaoo yards. The trenches were deep and covered ,n
front and above by sheets of corrugated iron teken from Mr
IMters farm. Here again one could not but admit, the
Dutch as mihtary engineers : for once more their d> ences
were far luperiw to thoee of our own side in their adui.t^tio.i
to modOT warfare, especiaUy as regards modem .irt.Hery
lire; indeed, the impreesion one formed was that if th.y Hb 1
poiMssed as much reiohition as engineering genius, they woi 1.1
have hpd a very good chance had they boWly rushed Kimb<-r
ley, m spite of the vakur and skill of Cotonel Kekewich and
Its brave defenders under his command.
We of course all paid a visit of inspection to ' Long Cecil •
the only k>i^[-range gun Kimberiey possessed, which was
constructed dunng the sieoe by Mr. Labram— a wonderful
niece of work to have been done under the existing conditions
by a civilian engmeer ; it stood before the Court House, where
doubtless it will remain for many a generation as a memento
of that epoch in the history of the city.
There were some rainy days during our stay in Kimberiey
and they completely altered the appearance of the veld'
It buret mto gtery. Short creeping grasses sprang up
sparsely and it was filled with flowers, inconspicuous but
beautifiil, rose-hued oxalis, stellaria, pretty pink vetches
small white garlic, innumerable composits; with yeltow balls'
yeUow daisies purple Michaelmas daisies, bunches of bedstraw!
ai^ the duU funereal asphodel which poisons the horses who
eat it. It was a pleasure to walk over the veW, and we had
to cross It every time we left our camp, for we were a mile or
two outside the city.
On the first arrival of our unit the pavemente and streets
of Kimberiey were crowded with men in k^iki uniform
*X?y ,*"°P contemed one or two, and the town resounded
with the tread of mfantry. the tramp and dust of the cavalry
were everywhere, while the rattle of the military wagons was
pMhaps the prevailing note. The Club was for ever clustered
with officers coming, going, eating and smoking. But before
we left our major was ahnost the only nan in uniform to be
;. frl
k
"?r,
m
' : !
M i
158 REMINISCENCES OF THREE CAMPAIGNS
seen as he and I walked through the streets ; in ten days'
time the troops had nearly all departed, and the resulting
silence had become impressive.
We too struck our tents, packed our carts, and were home-
less wanderers once more. We went to the hospital and said
farewell to those of our unit who were in the giasp of typhoid.
They were doing fairly well though not out of danger, and
though it was comforting to leave them in good hands, yet
I felt that their poor wasted faces would ever remain in my
memory as I saw them when we said good-bye, for we were
unlikely ever to meet again.
XXXVl
' COUNTEK-SUNSKTS '
1 PEAR that I owe some apology for the introduction of this
chapter, which refers to a singular celestial sunset appearance
witnessed by myself and others at Modder River and Kimber-
ley, as well as elsewhere afterwards, on a good many occasions.
It resembled somewhat the phenomenon well known as the
' Gegenschein,' but did not correspond with anything I had
seen, or had read of it. Once only had I seen a trace of
something faintly resembling it on a flat moor in Scotland,
but in no other part of the world had I met with anything
like it, and it struck me and my comrades as being very re-
markable. The camera entirely failed to reproduce it ii it
I made several drawings. I may be entirely mistaken, bui it
seems worthy of a description.
When the sun had just set in the north-west, there some-
times appeared in the south-east, at a point diametrically
opposite to the sunset, an appearance as if another sun were
rising there. There was usually a concentrated reddish glow
in the sky at that point, and a thin stratum of cirrhus cloud
8 or 10 degrees above the visible horizon, which on these
great plains corresponded with the true horizon, and fiom
the brightest point above the cloud there spread upwards
into the sky a fan-shaped series of radiating bands of light
and shade, precisely like those one sees thrown into the air
by the setting sun when it shines through clouds. As we did
not know at first what those appearances were, we styled them
' coimter-sunsets.'
The first one which was noticed was at Modder, on the 4th
of March, when the sun had just set in a clear sky in the north-
west, and Venus and the crescent moon were visible in the
same direction. Somewhere about half an hour after sunset
COINI KR.SU.NRISE
''m
1 :i|i
r. ■ >1
I
COLNTER-SUNSET
SOUTH AFRICAN WAR
*m
ttaee bnad streams of soft white light resembling the beuns
ftom ate lights were seen radinting from a point on the south-
eastern honion, lasting for twenty minutes or thereby and
then dMappeanng. A sketch was made. One band was 10
or 18 degrees m breadth, radiating from about 48° to 56=
to the north of the vertical ; the second S degrees biMd
radiatmg between about 25° to 80° N. ; and the third about
10 degrees broad, radiating bf tween the vertical drawn from
the common meeting-place of all on the horizon and 10
degrees to the north of this. The lower ends of the bands
sprang ftom a smaU belt of cumulus or cirrho -cumulus cloud
lymg some 15 degrees above the horizon, and their upper
ends reached ahnost to the zenith, ending in somewj^t
rounded extremities which, like their sides, shaded graduaUy
away into the blue sky. This observation was not made so
carefully as those which followed.
The second was seen at Kimber>ey on the 18th of March.
On coming out of my tent at a.48 p.m., whUe the setting sun
was stall 10 degrees above the horizon, rays of light were seen
raaerging from a point on the horizon exactly opposite the sun
thew lower ends rising into sight at a slight bank of sunlit
doud, cumulus m type, situated 10 degrees above the horizon,
but the rays had they been prolonged wouW have met at a
pomt at or just below the horizon. The moon, a day or two
past her full, had not yet risen. The sky generaUy was dull
with cumulus clouds. The appearance lasted for five minutes.
,i? ™y' Z'^ *^* "* number : No. 1, 10 degrees broad. 80" to
40 N. ; No. 2, 10 degrees broad. 10° to 20° N. ; No 8 10
degrees broad, 5° to 15° S. ; No. 4. 5 degrees broad, 26° to
80 is. ; and No. 5, 5 degrees broad, 40° to 46° S., all the
measurements being taken from the vertical of the point
of convergence.
A third very beautiful one was seen at Kimberley on the
Z2nd Sfarch. The sun had set in a sky which was cloudless,
except for one white cumulus cloud far to the south, and the
sunset showed no divergent rays. There was a thin red haze
all round the horizon most marked on the east and west ;
at 6.2 p.m. the phenomenon appealed, four bands converging
to a spot on the south-eastern horizon, where they all met
As the sun sank deeper it cast the convex shadow of the earth
on the sky above the horizon for a depth of 10 degrees, and
from the upper border of this the bands arose, stretehing up-
wards 78 decrees towards the zenith, and in proportions the
sun sank farther the shadow cut ofi the lower ends of the
bands. On this occasion the bands had the appearance of
dark rays or shadows on the glowing mist, leaving it bright
i'l
.4
1 ^ i II
M
I :
tl
I
I
■^
ite REMINISCENCES OF THREE CAMPAIGNS
betwoen them. The meuuies of the bands were : No. 1, 10
degrees broad, ilO° to aO° N. ; No. 2, 15 degrees broad, 85° to
40° N. ; No. 8, 5 degrees broad, 20° to i2S° S. ; No. 4, 5 degrees
broad, 40° to 45° S. By tiie time the phenomenon had lasted
for ten minutes, that is at 6.12 p.m., the band of the earth's
shadow on the horizon had climbed to IS degrees, and then
the whole faded quickly away. .
Though they were frequently watched for, the 'counter-
sunsets ' were not visible every night. They created a good
deal of interest among us, for they were previously unknown
to any of us, and our company mustered a goodly number
of seientiflc men, most of them accurate observers. On one
occasion we saw at sunset the unmistakable convex shadow
of the earth thrown on the sky while there were no beams
observable. Now and then we saw them at other places
than Modder and Kimberley, but always where there were
broad unlimited plains.
It was evident that on these expanses the lower strata of
the atmosphere were nearly always full of dust, and when
the sun's rays fell tangentially on them at sunset the rays,
being practically parallel, would when made visible by passing
through cloud or dust appear to one in the middle of the plain
as radiat'ng divergently &om the setting sun, and converging
behind the observer to the opposite horizon, just as on a
straight part of a railway the rails to one standing in the
middle of the straight part seem to converge and meet towards
both ends. The rays, illuminating the dusty atmosphere,
would be most evident towards the sunset and the horizon
opposite it, as they would be seen end on, and least evident
overhead and sideways where they would be seen across.
Clouds at sunset would throw long shadows or bands across
the dusty sunht atmosphere, these bands would seem to
converge to a point opposite the true sunset, and give rise
to the ' eounter-amset.' This seemed to be the explanation
of the appearance, and if it were correct it was evident that
there might be ' counter-tunrun ' as well.
That this was really the case I was able to satisfy myself
on the 80th of March, when the conditions were favourable.
Dawn that morning stole in between 5.15 and 5.80 ; it was
almost totally cloudless, but a faint dust and heat haze
overspread the plain. The horizon remained steel-blue both
to north and south, but the coming sun stained the east
citron-yellow, and over against it in the west was visible the
convex bow-like shadow of the earth seen upon the haze,
and above that shadow the unrisen sun made the haze glow
a fiery purple rivalling the east in brightness. As the sun
SOUTH AFRICAN WAR ,6,
tlie place in the east where the sun was about to rise th^
were no diveiRent beams proceeding, but pSiv in^ w^
«fnt!^!S?* ^"^ ''""«•» t» 'hoot up dSXm^
pomt «actly opposite to the sunrise. This wasTs^a! m
At flwt the beams were faint, and three in number then tW
the shadow of some peculiarly shaped kopjes which ZS
the nmme point in the east, one of »^ch cal S the Aasvo,^
kopje possessed a distinctive outline and a MoaHar noM^
:^f^'"lL' " '*"",^'"" """""'"^ "O the wesC sky under:
neath the beams. Above the Aasvogel shadowand b^«n
STe^'* ""* '^y "r *"''«* a warm ^LrNgrTTr
Mie appearances were best seen from 6.48 to^4Xt^„hen
fell ^^. V. " '"'"; l''^ ''"" ■"«* ^i^'n *» "bout 8 delr^s
Mou, the homon, the beams faded and vanished. The kS
awoke. The sue and direction of the beams were as foUo^^
No 1 was 10 degrees broad and was directed betw^n «°
and SO- southwards from a vertical dra,^ upwari? fi^
H^"! o' convergence on the horizon; No 8 was W
degrees broad and placed 85" to «° N ■ No « T «
degrees broad, 60° to 65" N. • and No ;' Z," « aJU^
bioad, 68° to 66° N Ti,» i,' if Z . . "* ^ degrees
theWm.i^nf- \ ^•'"* elevation reached by
the beams m this counter sunrise was 75 degrees.
XXXVII
KlMBEBUEY TO BOSROF
L^H °M ?? Kimberley the fmiction apparently assigned to
lj)rd Methuen's column was that of swiepmg the toui^Ies^
pbms of the Orange Free State along the'^solth sid^ of the
Vaal River, while General Sir Archibald Hunter was to do a
hke service in the Transvaal on the north of the r'ver Thi^
^^JZ"a " ^""^'5' °^ P°'"'"''y '*» """"ths over a land
»'h™.W • '* "''■'■^ ^"^ *' «*t of the world until we
Rnl^ """.JT' "'*" •""'^"t with the forces which L«l
Robots would be pushing up northwards from BWonte?n
to Preterm, ftom the Free State capital to thTt ofZTran "
h
B5^r^^-''ri iti
' " ' fi
i'!
I62 REMINISCENCES OF THREE CAMPAIGNS
vaal. Unless therefore, in those two hundred and fifty miles
which We were to traverse over unbroken flats, we might
hope for the excitement of fighting, there promised to be little
of interest ; and since it actually turned out that there was
little contact with the enemy, there will not be much to tell
of here beyond the occurrences of our own petty circle, and
the minor events which broke the daily repeated monotony.
Our first ' trek ' was one of four days' duration to Boshof,
forty miles away.
At five o'clock on the evening of Monday, the tod of
April, my comrades and I left Newton Common for the last
time, formed procession, and rode through the city of Kim-
berley to the public gardens, where we were to pass the night,
and which we reached at dusk. There 1 unharnessed my pony,
fed him and haltered him to one of the trees, pitched my small
tent in which we placed our valuables, and went to the Club
to dine. There were several celebrities in the room, among
them Lord Methuen and Colonel Kekewich, the defender of
Kimberley during the siege. We walked back to the gardens,
examined the underground shelter to which the inlubitants
were wont to flee for shelter when the Boer artillery was play-
ing, and turned in to sleep. It was a hot night, but very
clear, and as I looked out from the tent the new moon and
Venus were shining in the west ; in the Milky Way a network
of the black ' coal sacks ' broke its silvery band ; a breeze
rustled at intervals through the leaves of the eucalyptus trees,
and the beauty of nature was exquisite to behoki. But as
usual there were drawbacks, the horses snorted and neighed,
my pony rustled with his nosebag at my ears, and innumerable
dogs in the town barked and yelped until long after mid-
night, so that sleep was impossible for me or my comrades,
who lay in their sleeping-bags round my tent. The mos-
quitoes too were numerous and hungry, until I fell on the
device of covering my head except my eyes and nose with a
knitted helmet just received by parcel post, tying a hand-
kerchief round neck and chin, and tuckijig my hands away,
when I was able to lie in comfort and safety and listen to the
insects as they arrived one by one with a hungry buzz, lit
expecting to feed, and presently flew ofl disappointed to a
more promising subject. But the protection was devised
rather late, for sleep was broken, a cigar did not mend matters
much, and shortly the bullock wagons with our baggage and
forage started off after the usual chattering prelude by the
black boys. I was not sorry to turn out at half-past four,
harness up nnd pnck my buggy, get a cup of coffee and start
off finally on our first day's march.
SOUTH AFRICAN WAR ,63
of the di..o„d^i„«: and tt ^^uf Uytto^u^ST
F.eld Hospital with buck-wago"s and bagBaae bi^/h?'!:^
:^X at d- t^w^l-L^riES
8un rose on a glorious burning day and ZS?^ tt^M *^
whom. Major F-_ whn 1 !!^ °'^" ''"'*°"' °"e of
We left Leeuwkop in the afternoon and the re«t nt n,- a
■I : m
' ^
sit
l.li-
1:
164 REMINISCENCES OF THREE CAMPAIGNS
wagons containing our provisions stuck fairly in the sand
and had to be left behind ; one belonging to the bearer
company broke its pole in a deep rut, and a long time elapsed
before it could be shortened and mended, and even then it
broke again. The American ambulance had a like mishap.
But we went on, leaving them behind, and rested every hour
to let the tired cuttle and footsore men recover a little.
My small cart, which was made of the finest hickory, came
through wonderfully, and 1 had only once to stop to repair
the broken harness with some rope I bn d laid in in anticipa-
tion of such a calamity. Presently a lottery of Maxim guns
overtook and passed us. We struggled on all the afternoon ;
then the sun set and it became quite dc k, for the young moon
was hidden behind clouds, and still we wore onwards arattts
a plain which seemed as broad as the ocean, passing an irirt
of kopje at every mile or two> bii soon the darkness kid
roads, ruts, bouklers, and kopjes entirely. I expected my
tiny cart to become a wreck, so I left the reins loose on the
pony's neck, who, knowing all the tricks of South African
travel, followed some wagon in ttont which was invisible to
me, turned and twisted in marveltous fashion, and kept me
from being smashed in holes or on boulders and ant-hills.
For what seemed to be endless hours we stumbled blindfold
on, losing all touch with one another, until at last we saw,
ever so far oB on the horizon, the gleam of bivouac fires, and
eventually reached these as a confused mass of carts, animals,
and men. Unharnessing among a mi\ie of mules kicking
and rolling in the dust, I set off to find my commander, and
when we had picketed the pony, wheeleil the buggy round
ond set up the little tent, we lit our pipes and waited for our
supper. Aks I it was miles and miles behind on the broken-
down wagons. However, I had some biscuits and cheese in
my haversack, and a bottle of chartreuse, the reKc of a dinner
I had given in Kimberley to my comrades of the Modder ;
others of our friends came up and made their contributions ;
some one prowling about got hold of a tin of tomato soup and
another of cafi au lait ; we supped not so badly, and our
happy company turned in, some under my little shelter,
others beneath the cart, or on the ground round it. The
night was not a bad one, considering all things, the mos-
quitoes were few, and contrary to Kekewich's prognostica-
tions we were left alone by the Boer snipers ; while the wagons
which had been delayed by their mishaps were so late of
overtaking us that we had a long sleep and did not start
bom Slobbetts, as the pktce was called, until half-past six
the next morning.
SOUTH AFRICAN WAR ,65
The omieh from Slobbetta to Leeuwfontein. on the «th of
PMteMjes bustard and other game fled before our advanc^
^««en formed the most of what was to be seen ; but thf
W|A were somewhat better ; we passed ' vleis ' oi pool.^
water and marshes, and twice were surprised by apW^S-
KiS^ri. t'H*', *»«*«"> enginw puffing quickly towarS
Kunbwley and dn«gmg two or three Impty tiucks. It
^ »,4^"«' *° find the heavy monster, Veetoge^sif
•nd merrUy over ground which we were toiling across with
Z^wS""^ though we did encounter one wh?ch W C
wreclced and abancToned in a deep watercourse. When we^t
^i:^""^"''"' !* *'" *" ^^^ ^°"""« ^« there found weSs
cn.i!L^^.^'".^'i'**"**"' "* ««•• "'clock, and our
course still held eastwards over other wild flaU. who"onlv
after miles of monotonous progress along a load so flat and
smooth that we hardly had tht excitemfnt ofTv^g mte
and soft places, a white line ahead shining on thedltenl
ho««.n m the westering sunshine attracted our attend"
and after another hour of moving on we could make out the
tops and sides of houses, the outlLs of a square^h-^h wi^
howil'I? ff '"*'■ ^^K^"' ^'^^- As we%pproa^^
showed Itself emerging above a sea of green griss, whereon
Cd^ri^r"'"^'' '"^r'f °^ •»"''• a%eemtagly'vlS
Land of Goschen, a p«iceful and truly Dutch pastowl picture,
a settlement of people apparently leading an ArcadUn Ufe
undisturbed by the wars around and confident of beSg T
molested by the British troops who were occupying their
S°"h^- Some two or Uuee thousand cattle, in^hSds of a
hundred or two m «jch, were being driven home for ^ even
Z'„nH / T " I'^u"*."".* *" ^ foiRotten to behoW some
flve-and-twenty such herds in front of their black herdsmen
come lowmg homewards in the sunset and being wS Ci
the great shallow - vlei ' or waterpool ouUide the town
As we neared it over the sweet-smelling grass. Lord Methuen
a^d te'Tn ""^'j" "'^^"^'''^ "^« ^^us'irtTtSit:^"
and we followed hmi, halting outside at half-past five
Twenty mmutes later orders came for us: we tumTto tl^
nght passed lie town or. our left, circled round the^
td^^ T ^' *""*'' '"*« °^ **»* *°'"' a"d brought up on
the grass where we were to pass the night.
166 REMINISCENCES OF THREE CAMPAIGNS
In kU of thcM treki and in the many which were to follow
the thing which perhaps itruek me most of all was that in all
the land there was not a tingle cultivated field. Natural
paiture, and that generally of a most arid sort, was everything ;
of agriculture there was none.
XXXVIII
BOSHOF
No sooner had we deposited ourselves on the veld at Boshof
than we smelled the savour of the food being coolied in the
other camps, and began to long too for our supper, but we
learned with dismay that there wuh none for us ; our wagons
would not arrive until the next day, if even then. Thence-
forward I never went on trek without an nmmunition biscuit
in ray pocket, and often it was my only meal. On this occa-
sion all that we had was such scraps as we could find in the
comers of our haversacks, which we divided among us.
During the night which followed the cold was so great that
the major was glad to creep under my tent and lie abingside
me for warmth. I chancol to awake at dawn, looked out,
and behold ! my pony was gone. He had worked the hide-
rope halter oft its peg, and when I had scoured the neighbour-
hood with my telescope in a vain search for him 1 had to admit
to myself that he was lost. My lamentations awoke my
companions, who could only condole, especially when, after
hunting soundly and thoroughly through camp and town,
inquiring everywhere and encountering nothing more helpful
than sympathy and politeness, the Basuto was not to be heard
of. I pictured myself stranded immovable at Boshof while
the others of the force moved on, until relieved by the assur-
ance of the commanders of the hospital and bearer companies
that they would see me provided with a share of their trans-
port. Two of their officers got on their horses and set off to
search the plains, and returned in a couple of hours leading
the truant — complete even to his nosebag — who had been
discovered by some of the horse artillerymen who had been
searching for strayed steeds of their own.
An observer looking to the south from Boshof sees a gigantic
plain, with slight undulations, all grass-green and unbroken
till it is lost in the distance, and from a few cuttings made by
the inhabitants or the military it was easily seen that it con-
sisted of a great bed of dolerite or other impervious igneous
rock with a surface deposit of limestone and gravel, in the
depressions of which, between the dolerite and the limestone.
SOUTH AFRICAN v^AR
167
the water of the rainy scMsuns collected it. sublerraiiei.u.N
DMliu Mtd retervoirg. Where Bochof lay, the plain fell to
perhapt flfty feet lower, over a step-liki ridge which extended
the whole way from the easteni to aie western horin.ii.
Down the northern sunny side of this ridge the town of Boshnf
Mcmed to be sliding on to the lower level, and through the
village poured the water from the dolcrite pools out of 11 tuniK'l
in the ridge laboriously hollowed out by means of deep shnfls
sunk through the limestone along its track. The shaflt, were
four in number, in a line running from south to north, aiul in
their profound depths could be seen the flow of water thn.iigh
the tunnel, which emerged into «ii open cutting and ended
beside the village in a large lake or vlei that «rved to water
the cattle and horses and had a smaller pond bcNJde it where
the washing of the villagers was cnrried on. Away to the
northwards of the ridge spread the lower plain, green and un-
broken save by a single arboured farmhouse clusc at hand,
until the eye rested on a flat-topped hill, appurently quite
near, but really fifty miles away, which indicated the position
of the hamlet called ' Fourteen StreimiN ' where the enem
lay in full force. On the west of Bishof, whence wo had come,
the same flat plain as on the south VMnished into the distance ;
while eastwards, broken only by two steep, very stony kupjes
just touching our camp, one of vihu-h, pierced by the Boers
with a deep cutting where they h; , built a magazine for
explosives, from which we gave it the name .if M: ^azine
Kopje, served us as a watch-tower, the same plaui a|.peared,
occupied by flying columns of the Boers. The Transvaal
border came close to us on the noith-enst and couM be seen,
though there was no clear landmark indicating where it began.
To complete the picture of the Boshof plains, it is only
necessary to add that the lower level, that is, all north of the
prime vertical, was dotted over with some ten kopjes which,
however, were relatively so small that they seemed to be but
tiny mole-hills projecting above the vast flat surface.
The village itself I judged to have some 600 inhabitants ; it
contained two churches, one Lutheran, the other ' Dopper '
(Covenanting), a small Anglican chiipel that had been used
by the Boers as a hospital, and for the rest clean white or
red flat-roofed houses, each standing Jipart from its neighbours
in its own fniit garden, all overhung by eucalyptus and wattle
trees resembling weeping and other willows, while rows of
lombaidy poplars bordered the broad streets. There were
a church square and a central market square, now filled with
parks of field artillery, Maxims, and other guns, horses,
tents, and all their belongings. From the squares the streets
H i
MlOOCOrV >fSOUITI0N TIST CHAtT
(»NSI and ISO TEST CHAUT No. J)
/APPLIED IIVVIBE Inc
1653 Eort Main Slreet
Rochtitir, Na-m Torti U60B US*
(716) *82 - 0300 - Pfiont
(716) 288-5989 -Fa.
i68 REMINISCENCES OF THREE CAMPAIGNS
ran out at right angles, for the town was laid out like a chess
board, was itself ti nearly perfect oblong, and all its buildings
stopped suddenly in the open veld, giving it the appearance
of a walled town, which it virtually was. There was some-
thing oriental in its general appearance. Its most charming
feature was that down the sides of many of its streets there
flowed channels of running water, which the citizens were
entitled to divert into their gardens every third day to irrigate
them. By this water supply and that from some artesian
wells Boshof is rendered eminently fertile, and is in summer
time a rich orchard of fruits, such as figs, pomegranates,
grapes, peaches, apricots, quinces, etc., and a garden of
vegetables, melons, cucumbers, marrows, and so on.
But a disillusionment awaited my overnight ideas of an
Arcadian village, happy and tranquil among its herds and
pastures, when I came to observe it by the cold light of day.
The supposed villagers' herds were only the trains of trans-
port bullocks belonging to our forces ; the inhabitants were
to a man filled with the most envenomed hatred against
the British ; even such Dutch women as had married English-
men were looked upon as lepers and spoken to by no one ;
and round the town swarmed within a few miles commandoes
and guerilla bands waiting to cut ofi stragglers or small parties
who might safely be assailed. The women were the most
irreconcilable, and did not hesitate to show it. As an example,
a ruinous iron stove stood near the schoolhouse hospital, and
the soldiers asked its proprietors to give or lend it for the sick ;
they were represented by a lady, who refused the request.
Next night our major annexed it. The lady, after coming
to the hospital and abusing us all round in pointed terms,
broke, I beUeve, her way into Lord Methuen's room where
he and four of his leading c fficers were in conference, shook
her fist in the face of each individual, gave them an address
of (eloquent abuse, and frightened them all. One of the bold-
est, it was said, meekly asked if she would not rather have
her stove doing good to sick men than uselessly rusting, and
was answered that the sick men might rot for anything she
cared, and that he and the other officers sitting there were
useless, and might rot too, they ought to be out on the veld
fighting like her husband and nephew and not loafing there
in the town. She departed with all the honours of war, but
did not get back her stove. This happened some days after
our arrival.
Evidently there was a great amount of spy work going on
between Boshof and the enemy, for whenever our armies
sustained anything like a reverse, even before we heard of
SOUTH AFRICAN WAR ^^
foPwSS,Tth?Hi'*"'"*"' ^"''"""°» '"»°"8 the citizens
^nH f M ^: ?' *"" «''™'y conducted back to the town
been killed when fighting in the Boer ranks ; K^t a W
^^i hTk ^^ "fr^^hments in the tent 'of an ^S
Z^l 7"'' "'' ""^ ''•>«" 't '""k"! out that there w«e
™^nr ?'" ^enences heard or saw a discou^s
™ th.l, -'^u*^ as freely admitted too that the BoerT
evemtorttttHH^t "' S!"*'*™'"' ^""^ -«" -'^^tly
j:srtrd"e^. "^^^ ^.rr:i^^\r:ti
^^"^t ^T^ *••"* *'™ "^" "°* ex^ptions on ^^^
ades, but certamly, on ours, unless the episode of the stove
^T. ^^Kj ,1 ^ '^''^ "''«=«^y toW of one which occurred
kmd. One of a couple of Boers armed with Mauser rifli.
Bock who W w u-^^ "u"" "^""'^ '^ ^^'>^' t"™ed on the
th™ ™°^d shot hun, who were two in number, and kill^
us^I«'^J n*^'?'' """^^T °t*'' ^°" "» « Boshof towards
us were friendly enough, their storekeepers reaped a ri!^
)iv
i \
170 REMINISCENCES OF THREE CAMPAIGNS
harvest by selling us the things we stood in need of, one of
them helping me to obtain four croquet balls in order to
extemporise a game where the other implements were tent
mallets and hoops made from ctirt tyres : it gave us a little
exercise and proved to be a success. All the same, these
men were very astute in anything they thought would assist
the war, and I shall presently have to relate how their com-
rades were devising plans to recapture Boshof. Meanwhile
those within the town, headed by their doctor, W , who
was afterwards deported to Cape Town for espionage, com-
menced an agitation to have the place of the British camp
shifted so that it could be shelled without endangering the
town itself. They objected to its location on the ground
that it was near their water supply. As a matter of fact,
their own slaughtering place and even their cemetery were
close to the source of the water, while the tests applied by
myself and others showed that there was no impurity ex-
cepting where they washed their clothes. Nevertheless the
courteous general and his staff, after going fully into the
subject and examining my plans find sections, which showed
everything plainly, were so conciliatory as to give instructions
to us to shift our quarters, not out into the wilderness as
Dr. W wished, but to a spot near the cemetery, by no
means a good place, but still within the limits of defence.
In Boshof we were virtually in a state of siege. Whenever
a military force is placed, as ours was, in the midst of a hostile
country, it is in many respects peculiarly situated. It is
cut oft from newspapers, telegrams, and letters, and informa-
tion is with difficulty obtainable. We knew nothing of what
was going on beyond the reach of our eyes and ears ; events
might be occurring far away or even near us of which we
were unaware ; and we could not judge of the import of any
orders that were given or movjs that were being made.
Hence rumours of the most alarming kind were flying about,
most of which proved to be erroneous. Each man lived in
a strained frame of mind, perforce content to do his duty
in his own sphere and leave all beyond it to destiny. We
were shut off from the world, often in days of grey pouring
rain. No one could reach Kimberley without the protection
of a strong escort, or venture out to the detachments biv-
ouacking a few miles off unless similarly guarded. It must,
however, be stated that our chivalrous foes never molested
our sick convoys, which was greatly to their honour, and it
was chiefly from those coming and going in charge of them
that we learned anything. Otherwise we formed a little
world of our own, with its own interests, hopes, and fears.
SOUTH AFRICAN WAR 17,
aroused by volleys of rifle fire being loosed off from the
breasl*rorks round us. Sometimes all newspaZ, were for
a week or two prevented from reaching us, feTt^ev mi/ht
e^emr -formation thercontained ZisT fhe
Dort tolViS^r "'tMa8«""« Kopje where our observation
h?w„ .r^iJ**" '"** ^y- ""* ''«d a bird's-eye view of the
t^^^i,!"'''^^^ 1^?P* ">>"« th« ">«*" roads emenj^ bv
trenches and barbed wire, and surrounded by canvasTmps
J^1°"V'''7^ '^"8*'* *« •''"'^n bUnket tents of o^u;
«v,^l!!l%r1 P"'"'^*'; ""'' "*'" 'n°'« distant the telescope
™ ^i^K u'"'^"' °^ *•>" ^"^'^ ^ith their men moving a3
thefc^t" ?*""*^ themselves. CommaXfof
Hoo^d InH ""^ «'^. towards the east which led to
aoopstad, and a reconnoitring party which went m.f in
that direction found itself in .^ntTct with two ^" es of the
enemy, numbering together some 600 men, lyingTn wait on
^?;,'t ft."^'^" Z'^J^^'' ■""«' °«' «"<! ~"W 6*t no7ariher
railed Zwaartkoppiesfontein, with some cavalry, who \rere
"reqi^r^ andho^e were sent out to meet and support him,
II required. He r.sxt went out with a larger force whirh
brvouacked for days out there, tentless in *the h^vy rah.
the ^Z'^XT^ '™'; °"* '"'^ '"' ^''"^ ^« wereTrft to hold
Bo^ fl^ ^, ^/'"R'^^^nn™ shot, and dislodged a few
To secure our communications with Kimberlev half a
vSr^l^'^' ^^"* ^'^^ f™™ Boshof to hold ftankfort
^n^vT oT^Hi^^^r J*"! ^^^ *°^^' -"«J thus ^fst the
convoys of different kmds which passed between them
ambu^htThe '^"* "f '""•" ^^^'^^ "^ «-" ^"o Ly Tn
ambush in the vanous farms, in numbers of from six to «.
the?;.?'' ^'"'° ^";?"'^'y ^^'' »"°"ght in wo^of th^se
n as nriUeTT"^ captured by our scouts and Uught
hirf J? I IV ^* ''*' ^«^ that some of these skulkers
S.tercJ^en*:rl^-"°""''' ""* "° ""« attlcheS th"
d^fHSw-lS^aTrono-u^^bleS;.'"' ""^ ^^'* *•-* ^ --
..'Tl
^.•vi
''I
M
' j
£l t I
172 REMINISCENCES OF THREE CAMPAIGNS
The largest of the Boer commandoes were of only moderate
size, for they would hardly ever venture to risk an open
fight in the early days, though more men were coming in to
join them, and their plans were growing more daiing. The
commando on the north was eftimated at only 800 men,
entrenched twelve miles away, and occupying a quarter of
a circle from the north to the east, extending from a ' vlei '
on the Warrenton Road to Kalkfontein and Prispan Farms,
and along this line shots were constantly being exchanged
between them and our outposts, but with little effect, although
on one occasion we learned from one of Reuter's reports that
-* had been heard ' from a good source that the Boers pro-
sed great indignation at the slimness of Lord Methuen's
force engaged near Boshof the other day. The British retired
hurriedly, and thus drew the Boers near a place from whence
several volleys, doing much execution, were poured into them
before they could withdraw.' At Beck's Farm, a mile or
two out, sniping went on all day.
As the time went on the hostile forces grew much larger
and our scouts reported them as daily hovering about, now
singly, now in fours, and even up to 2000 men. Captain
H , with 50 men and native guides, marked down after
some difficulty a body of them away on the east, who fired
on his party, which was too weak in numbers and had to
withdraw to Boshof. A laager of 150 men and a second with
a much larger force were located at a short distance out from
us, and they commenced to heUograph to our signallers f^om
distant kopjes, sending misleading messages and chaffing
remarks, such as that we might expect them .-^t Boshof
that day, and inquiring whether we had whisky enough
for them.
In proportion as the numbers of the enemy grew, our
precautions against an onset increased. In every way we
strengthened ourselves. When one day I walked out in the
afternoon to a lovely little group of hillocks, called the Green
Kopjes, on the north-east, in a most picturesque little
amphitheatre in the centre of them, under the wooded slopes
which overhung it, I found a whole company of men, instead
of a section, encamped, and new trenches being everywhere
made below as well as on the summits, while every defensible
spot within reach of my telescope showed our outposts
holding it, though it also revealed numerous commandoes
of the Boers at the farms of Brakfontein and Prispan engaged
in throwing up formidable entrenchments on the latter to
command the Hoopstad road, which was likely lu be the line
of any farther advance of our army in this quarter. Others
SOUTH AFRICAN WAR
173
;L^r^r?^ :''^sii,ns. T.t ^. =^
.mpressed with the way in which our men «t oishTw^
themselves on the elevations, so that the enemy aS
crept and slipped about and constructed their defa^Ss
mostly dunng the hours of darkness, so that thev could h«^v
be seen although we knew that thev were all «r^.^? n ^
tinuing my walk, I found that two^ Trnpal™" „lare^
m the north kopjes, facing the Boers wTo There disnu!^
our command of the road to Fourteen Streams on H^Tv 1
River, and had strongly fortified rh^mselv^s by brelstwirk
and schanzes; while Annerley's Kopie on the w«V
also powerfully defended. "^^ ''''* "'"''
The town itself became a complete fortress everv „»ii
bemj loopholed, even those of the gardens tnd ZfJ-f
breastworks being placed ac„,ss evefy e:St. and ^SoubTs
and gun emplacemento thrown up ctose to the w^s It
was put m a condition to be held securelv hv a « Jin »
t^l^rLr "Crv'^^ -^-necX'n'dVfrhe/ro
taken ^ *^"'''''' ?'*«'"*'«" ^^ safety was
l'htfS.st°renti^n"^.''rr";^\"re\r^^^^^^
2f^ out. by both sides whicrwlXer"r; haCwa
»|r:rthrj^:;!:„--^^^^^^^
out at half an hoik's notice and went oif with the Yeomr r^
that was in the afternoon j and in the evenu^ e^s^TJ2.L
came on with thunder clouds and lightntag X ifiS W
aesLmTtl.'?^"^'"^' ^^"^ by V^i^aJ^uX S
thesham. with baggage, provisions for two days, and r^r
C^'7,S! ""^^"^ .^"* ^°' '•'^ south-east, w"a l^e
torce of Boers was sa d to be threateninir Hn«,l,„f w ^
supplied with maps of the coun^'T^t^/^^- m^ht^n'^f
return, but that in that event food would ^ Int aft.
weather became worse and worse, the thunder and liXnin^
were menacing us fiereely right overheaTand stS^af
weU as m occasional wild gusts the rain and hail felTso th^t
,11';
I !
a-?
'li
i
174 REMINISCENCES OF THREE CAMPAIGNS
no one was sorry when at 8.15 orders ciiiiie that, for a time
at least, our departure was to be delayed.
It was as disquieting a night as any we passed at Boshof.
The Boers at Warrenton were sniping our men all night
and shelling them all day ; and a report was spread that
General Kelly Kenny in the eastern Free State had lost a
whole regiment of the Guards. But a bright message came
in that our yeomanry had surrounded, close to us, a commando
of the enemy, captured, killed or wounded them all, and that
a convoy of prisoners was on its way to us, and might arrive
at any moment. So we put up our tents on a spot at the edge
of th ' ill of the plain, on nice clean grassy ground, and settled
oursi es there. After t'-.at nothing remained to be done
but to turn in, for tht s.torm was increasing, the ground
beneath us was jumping wK'never the thunder crashed,
the Magazine Kopje was blazing like a lightning conductor,
and the rain grew into a furious deluge which penetrated
our thin single tents, soaking everything, and across the floor
of my tent there came a river of water pouring off the higher
ground and spreading until no square inch remained which
did not splash. The storm reminded me of those of Modder
River ; as I lay on what served for a bed, the spray coming
through the canvas poured down on my face till even
my helmet was soaking, for the wet came through every-
thing. One had just to lie and become saturated, there
was no alternative. After a time the rain softened the ground
where the tent pegs were fixed, the tent ropes became short-
ened, and as the wind strained them the pegs came out as if
they had been stuck into butter, and for some hours we were
dripping objects in stockingless boots, alternately going out
and in, struggling with the pegs, ropes, and canvas, to prevent
the whole coming down, working in the dark, groping for
the pegs and getting a whack at them now and then when
a flash showed them up, or chancing a stroke when it did
not do so. At midnight matters mitigated somewhat, and
lying down in my clothes on a litter of the least wetted things
I tried to get a nap. At one o'clock there came the braying,
jingling, and trotting of mules, the calls of the Kafir drivers,
and the voices of the officers yelling for our major and cursing
their servants by all th>:ir gods. Rising to offer my services,
I found that only a fc wounded had been brought in, and
had been already well cared for, so that nothing was required.
I returned to bed and slept soundly till six o'clock, when I
got at my portmanteau and enjoyed the first change of cloth-
ing I had had for four days, and while doing this the sounds
of the awakening camp, buzzing as the sun's beams seemed
SOUTH AFRICAN WAR 175
rtveUW of the buRles. whose sounds were wet as thev w«*
I^helH*'^"**' *'"' •*'*" ""' flJ'«» them, and UkU^g'^
x:^ t;' tr r: 7"^ ;SchTflr '' ^'F-^*-
=tS¥-^^^SHM
warn, and a pipe and breakfast further Tmp^vrafCT
LJ!!,'"* t°^ '"*'"«^ *° "»« narrative of the events of iS
men which had been sent out so suddenly had metwith a^
disposed of a commando of Boers so satisfartorily That the
targer expedite, which had been ordered out to sup^rt it
was not required TTiey had surrounded 100 Boew^Uled
their commander Villebois de JIareuil and IS of Ws min
aTsJ^-^n-oifsin^^rteXrof^lor^^^^^^^^
f^T^^ir °' '•'« y--»"andtXr!"LdX'::
^t down by the enemy after they had hung out the wSS
Captain M— - had, on the previous night, brought back
to our camp al the wounded who could be m^ved, but thi«
of the most senous cases still remained out, and he was lo^
to fetch them in. WouM I accompanv him LT f "*
regaining them, when he started inTK «me ? t"
was but one answer possible to the invitation T would g^
m two mmutes, and at nine o'clock we set off w°th two
ambulance wagons an escort of five of the Cape Mmmt^
Police, and a few bearers, to the farm of TweefiTte^
some called it, DrifonUm, the scenTof til £t Gu^:^'
by compass and maps we struck out due souUi f^ twS-^
miks^ through herds of springbuck jumping befow us Hke
tJ^^ ^^ history of the little battle had been as follows •
the precedmg morning, some Kafirs who lived i^ a liWe
baal among the kopjes had ridden in to Boshof to re^rt
th«t a commando of the Dutch had arrived there dSin^C
night. On rece.vmg the mformation the Cape Police at one^
proceeded out and espied a di„ve of the Boe?s' hol^s amon^
'i
. '1
nn
K i'
176 REMINISCENCES OF THREE CAMPAIGNS
the three-ihouldered kopjei, with a single Boer driving them
towards the laager where the enemy ' They shot the hone-
man and captured the horses, thv 'ng the Boert of
their mobility, and sent in word thai "ley had located the
commando. Thereupon the Yeomani; went out to seal
them up until the larger expedition could arrive, for their
numbers were not exactly known. By the time that Ixird
Methurn had arrived with the Yeomanry, some Maxims,
and a couple of field guns. Colonel P , an officer who had
distinguished himself in thedefence of Kimberley.had approxi-
mately ascertained the number of men in the commando
and n>ade a plan for their capture, which Methuen adopted.
Reaching the spot at three in the afternoon the Yeomar.y
and police formed a line on the east of the Boers, left their
horses behind the shelter of n small but high kopje, and
"dvanced in skirmishing order, gradually throwing their
wings forward so as to envelop the enemy. When they were
about a thousand yards distant, and the Boers had opened
fire, the ambulances were found to bfc in the line of Are and ht d
to be withdrawn until the t -oops had made further progress,
whei. they were able to take the cover of some rising ground
sufficient to shield them from the rifle fire, for the Boers had
neither Maxims nor field guns. At first the British had no
advantage from their own artillery, as the gunners unwisely
delayed opening fire until they had constructed two stont
emplacemeats for their guns on either side of the larger of
the two sheltering kopjes, and while I. was being done an
active but not very efficient exchange of shots was being
maintained between the two forces, and to right and left
the enveloping wings were drawing on, the police shielding
themselves among the three kopjes where the horses had been
••aptured, but the Yeomanry on the loft remainiL; too much
exposed on the plain owing to the gunners' delay. When at
length the artillery opened fire, made their ' bmcket ' and
sent two shells among the Boers, Villebois recognised that
the gun>, would render his defeat certain, and gave ordeis to
his men, many of whom were French, Hollanders, or ether
foreigners, that there was to be no surrender. The next
shrapnel burst beside him, killed him by tearing his shoulder
open, and wounded Greyer, one of his company, who after-
wards recovered. Meanwhile the British closed in arH sur-
rounded the Boer force which, sheltered in natural 1 con-
structed schanzes, continued to fire on the British, whose
superior numbers and better distribution so told on the Boers
that they lost many of their men. They still fought on,
however, until the British had reached the foot of the group
SOUTI" AFRICAN WAR
It i» possible that the muider of W*^^' » j ...
i!S?=!£^tr *" - .„ «
from a wounded Frenchman fW Vk J^ ^ "' * -eamed
were so numerous oi^n^r ''''' ^ "°* '"'"'^ ''^
were tt ; W k»i.Mo5«!t I'^f iXrd* '"h""
of rounded bfod" I Z^\u' .^^^"^ '"'^ 'n°«ine»
Boer had ]ain the keapsTftwenv'^ T^'"" '^'^
'•ases he had expei^id L-T ti^^ '^"I'' '"P^^ cartridge
^ ««. »/t^^1i*e^s'^;"lheX^-^%Tth^^^^^^^^^^
I
ii
; f
. Il
178 REMINISCENCES OF THREE CAMPAIGNS
no like thoM of the Belmont battleilfid sit to make it »uper-
fluous to work out their >ngle& minutely.
Proceeding next to the Kafir kra»l, 1 found the Yeomanry
doctor, who, along with an officer and »ome men, had remained
overnight with three severely wounded. Leaving these
wounded there for the night had saved the life of at least one
who had been shot through the chest ; he was now better
atle to bear the rough joimey which was before him than
if he had been moved at once over the rough roads amid the
torrents of rain and in the dark. The wounded had been
far from uncomfortable in the kraal, and had been supplied
with milk, soup, and food cooked for them by the Kaflrs.
The Kulir huts in which some of them lay were quaint struc-
tures ; they resembled ant-heaps or upturned cups of red
clay, circular, dome-topped, and roofed with pieces of tm,
iron, paper, wood, and branches ; they had little doorways
into which one couU just creep, and windows barely large
enough to admit one's head. The interiors were a surprise,
they were so nice. The floors measured about Ave feet by
six, were laid with clay from ant-heaps beaten hard, and
near one comer was a rounded fireplace. The walls were of
the same clay, with, in addition to the windows mentioned,
small recesses hung with tiny lace curtains and containing
ornaments like a doll's house. The walls were perfectly
clean, whitewashed, with Bushman paintings of people,
ornaments, bars, and arabesques in blue. Though clean,
comfortable and wann, they were hard to get wounded men
into and out of, but .Is was arranged all right and painlessly.
Outside each hut was a minute yard with a bamboo fence, and
in the middle of a group of three or four such huts was a little
central yard with a raised clay threshing-floor bordered with
flat stones set on edge, leaving a small gateway. The whole
was reminiscent of Lilliput, or of the houses children build
in their play.
Four generations inhabitated the huts ; the small withered
old Chingachgook was seated outside the door in the sunshine,
his paralysed hands and head shaking, but with a good in-
telligent look in his wrinkled parchment face. Next came
his burly elder son, broad-shouldered, farmer-like, and a
centaur when on horseback, with his fat motherly wife.
Then a youthful man and wife, rather good-looking than
otherwise, while the black atoms who played about their
knees completed as curious and interesting a settlement as
ever I had an opportunity of seeing so closely. These were
the good people who bad brought us word of the Boer com-
mando, and they were now laughing and ftatomising with the
SOUTH AFRICAN WAR ,7,
ins them wi ' Th, Kft. '''"''*'^"' "° "•«"«• "da-
and had tobacco an.. «fffee uh 1 fS '"""'f"' hav-rsacks
refrc^hcd and pre^Vt^h:i^ ':^;':''tr liJt'iS S
tenderly into our ambulances, and net of f„; u, ' k , ',""""
a smoother tr..k to which the Kiflrgu ided „» '"^"^"''T
of a shower <> min and another ^r\^ ^i""™ "». "1 m spite
demanded by the oxhfnZ.n' f fhe'^irndJ^ " '"'''^"l
JoyftiUyback. while the Kafirs were wwLed ov ««? ^*
al^-r "e*^^e^°Ket LT '^'''^- '"^^""d^r "v'JS!
beio., dark Cameron ^*'°" °"' ■""«"'" '" °»' hospital
CaJt^m^rL^^^^^X ^f^'h- P"t mto his tent when
an impressive sigh^ Te for^ta^Tfl.r '"* '"V'^"'' *" »««
scenes we had bf... v°sTtfm.T},»?^ '?F '=°"«='""°n *<> the
as we walked out r a hLndrecul^^ToV JVTr""'!!* ""''
camp, and we « drawn no i/?i^ ^ • """ ''°'P't«'
a thousand soldiers, ^ch with hTsV^^I'm'"' °"« """""^
its muzzle resting"; t^e g^und whUe'hi/^ T'^^^X ''•"'
d^i^n^^^-^riit^SBi?^
and poplars and blue gum trees Dlant«5 K«i^^ '•" P"""
eu'r„^5 ?r£S v^""""^' "''
ill
r
-I 1 ;•!
1 ,i,|:|
' ' ' ' II
!■-■'■ 1
hil
f
1'^
i8o REMINISCENCES OF THREE CAMPAIGNS
again among the guarded men. The body was lowered into
^ grave and the earth ftUed in upon his corpse amid absolute
sUe^ce on the part of the whole army and spectators while
ttepines above them were as if etched by the blackest
fune^link against the golden yellow patch fU 'mgenng
n the sky where the sun had set and against the leaden
Bloom of the rest of the horizon where the thunder clouds
weie again gathering and the twisted streams of the lightning
were playing. The lines of soldiers at the sharp command
present J arms, and the bugles wailed out in unison the im-
pressive call of ' The Last Post.' the signal which marks the
end of every day and the beginning of night, when »" "n the
^mps ret^ to^est. The scene, the hour, and all the sur-
roundings fitted weU together, and formed a solemn endmg
to a valmnt soldier's life. Then rang out Order Arms, and
the ceremony was over.
The Yeonmnry, who had in the meantime been drawn up
outside the graveyard, then buried their dead <»J«?de« •"
the dark Ix)rd Methuen afterwards, before we left Boshof,
erected a tombstone of white marble ov-r ViUebois s p»ye
Papers found on ViUeuois revealed plans by wtach three
bodies of Boers were to converge to make a concerted mgnt
attack upon us so as to recover Boshof. It was pretty certam
that the rapture of his commando would modify this design,
but as the forces which were to have taken part m the onset
were led bv Boshofians who knew every house, tree, and stone,
some anxiety remained lest it might in some form yet be
attempted. Little information was to be extracted from their
wounded, whom we doctors were attending in the pnvate
houses of the citizens who gladly gave them shelter beyond
the facts that when moving about they appeared to have had
good times, Uving on milk, eggs, butter, mutton, beef, fowls,
and vegetables, annexing everythmg they pleased, looting
and stripping the farms they came across, and leavmg them
absolutely tere ; and they complained of the beef and bis-
cuits we gave them for food, and would not believe me when
I told them that nobody in our camps received anything else.
For one who was not in the counsels of our general, it was
quite impossible to disentangle and range m due ?rder and
SnporUn^ the various mUitary events and skinnishes that
went on round Boshof whUe we were there, and a few, perhaps
rather disjointed, notes of what came under my own observa-
tion are aU that it is possible for me to give here
It seemed that the scheme drawn up by Villebois con-
tained the recommendation that on some nights our camp
should be shelled and deluged with smaU-arm fire from the
SOUTH AFRICAN WAR ,8,
pkin around, but that the assailants should withdraw befon.
any approach of the British, and this, thoughS addJd
the paper 'will do more to disconcert the Enghth than^f
the attack were carried home.' I presume thft it vm^ to
which"fnir''T'' ""^^ "" '^^ *^' °" some oVthrda!^
Th^KK- "°'^'^u°.'" ™""°° ^^« firing and our Mbj^I
throbbmg out their missUes at odd times againrt theB^
E™X^ «>ntjnuing to dig their trenches a^ dea^'n^^
Expeditions also went out, hunting up andchaSiff ^v
tH'T^ ^"^ "^/*^ '^''*»"='^ around.'^so tha? taThe ^^
t^lli "•^s.onally seemed to some of us that we were left
m rather an mdefensible condition, as when oXT^inale
regmient of militia remained to protect both the totn^nd
one ^fXr'PLS-.-"''''^ "• ^ "^^ '^' chance of XhiSj
Zwa«rtln • f T^*°"' ^tn™ing on the 18th of April S
Zwaartkopjefontem J it had proceeded four miles bewnd
flight some of the Boers who were on watch to ™t off
^to^nd whU- 8"?^y plains and bush, with plenty of
water, and while we m the town were being drenched win!
tolTtrdu^t'^a'lfH "^^ "•'*'^ ^'^ little, ju"t sufficient
ttoe Iw he ?.^^^*^' "'«''* ^^ "°°^ «* ««• another
tn «:« i?^u ^^' ^ ^^ 8°ne out to Magazine Kopie
wZlt u^',"8 ^^I" *«y *"" they came quite near us
stoppmg under the shelter of elevated grounds ti chwk the
enemy, and agam moving forwards as opportunity pret^nted
but It was «,rdite powder that was used as the c^™ for the
sneus. While this action was developing, the herdsmen
otlZt^Z^'^Tf °"*^ g-'^ere? t°«ether thf Ss
dT^wn^r«nH With exceeding slowness the battle
te bvXn f »,T^""*'' '* ""^ "^"^ at the camp,
muh,.^ . """^^ *'^'"* «> «1«* that both parties, by
mutual consent as it seemed, gave it up. Colonel TownUnd
fli
ij 11
j|1 ! ;
f
111
M.
182 REMINISCENCES OF THREE CAMPAIGNS
turned in to our mess-tent, others came later, and we were
able to leam what had really occurred. It appeared to have
been something as follows : Lord Methuen had on the
previous night received intelligence that a considerable
commando had drawn in from the north upon him, possibly
from the Fourteen Streams district, and he had issued orders,
at the Zwaartkopjes where he lay, to move back into Boshof
in the afternoon. His stores were packed into the wagons
and sent off first, while the Yeomanry and the others of his
force gradually withdrew after them. No sooner was the
baggage train on its way than two field guns and a pom-
pom (Vickers-Maxim) opened file from a hill which, owing
to a report received from some Kafirs, had been scouted
over that very morning. This fire did little actual harm,
but when the infantry began to withdraw in their turn
from the posts they were holding on the hills and kopjes,
and to follow the convoy, a force' of 2000 or more Boers
swarmed out, occupied the abandoned elevations, and opened
a more destructive fire of small arms. They wounded or
killed some of the Yeomanry and others ; one if not raore
of the Yeomanry officers were killed ; and some of the killed
and wounded had to be left where they had fallen, though
Methuen himself was present coolly and judiciously directing
the steps of the retreat. The Boers were eager to secure the
baggage, and continued to follow and shell it as well as
the troops, and one of the R.A.M.C. officers almost lost his
wagon containing the surgical equipment . The wagon was the
last of the line and twice broke its pole before it was got away.
Our men were gloomy over this and heads were shaken over
our chances ; only good Colonel Townsend, with a fighter's
gleam in his Irish eyes, protested that all had been right
and that it had been ' a very pretty fight.'
The strength and courpge of the Boers was evidently not
to be under-rated, and orders were issued that night attacks
were to be expected, that if these took place all tents were
immediately to be struck and left lying on the ground, all
the patients conveyed into the town and placed in the school-
house hospital or in the Anglican church, horses and mules
brought into the Market Square, all lights to be extinguished,
and no speaking permitted. That night, however, there was
only a little firing from the outposts.
One afternoon a day or two later the Yeomanry outposts,
on a ridge to the south, were attacked, when a squadron of
mounted infantry rode out, and some of us followed to see
whether we could be of any service. The horsemen opened
out into a long line of pairs, went dancing out to the ridge
SOUTH AFRICAN WAR
183
bv thTS^n f ^^^ ",°" *•'' '•'^*- "^y ^""^ followed
ensu^ ^^T " ?"^^: ?^ ambulance wagons, but no action
ZaIz: m '^'^^^ **?'*' *'°^'y *l^"«'' *e trees, shrubs,
and boulders, so as to draw the enemy's fire, but theThad
a^d ZfW ^ ^^L'^T '." ""= '^'^ ^'* °"e -nan killed
?„ V.„«^ J^°""u^- ^*"'* °"1'"^ w«« again issued as
to how to act m the event of a night alarm, as there were
strong grounds for expecting a nocturnal surprise, and all
tent JJT ^ "" P^^??™*, *° J^P "P ""<• "^ek down our
tent-poles at an mstant's notice. I rose several times
«pecmUy at four o'ctock, the most likely hour, but the n^h
passed over peacefully, and no sound or disturbance broke
the tamqmllrty until our guns began to speak after daybreak
About the latter half of April matted were fairly Hvelv
at Boshof, for the Boers we^ reluctant to abandon hei^
„n^. occupymg the town, and Lord Methuen was ever
on the watch to checkmate, or at least read them a lesson
It was known too that the townsmen, and most of all the
women, were communicating every possible piece of informa-
tion regarding us so that constant vigilance was imperative
Early on the 26th there was some stir in the camp whteh
aroused me to dress and go out. Cavalry were alr^dy out
on the plam and two batteries of artillery were presently
on their track and drew up ready for action. A la?ge bjy
of infantry manned aU the trenches and kopjes with sharp
shooters. And the ambulances were in readiness The
taoops were at flret mustered on the southern side of the town
but soon changed over to that on the north. Nothine how-
7Z ^I^H ° '*; !u' ™'='"y did not advance, thfforces
r^ 1 "^ *° *?."■ '*'"P^' ^"^ *" tl^mes resumed their
nonnal appearance. Possibly it had been a false alarm.
tK ^\^*''^ day there was a real battle. Firing began at
Knnt^'*' "" .*" """*' ""^ ^''^" I "'^•'ed the Ufagazine
Kopje the events were spread out before my eyes. Some
of our wagoners were out cutting wood on a ridge a short
d«t^ce to the south of the camp, where there was a «,(S
f^l Hw"^"' '"'1 *H ^''" "nexpectedly advancing from
!^ •'■Tf ^!°"' "?et ''rth the Cossack posts of the YeoLnry,
and a brisk action ensued. So numerous and daring were
^Uo^° wl *' Yeomanry had to retreat, and 1 saw them
^Uop back in small groups or singly to a watercourse or
donga behmd them, where they formed up and awaited
ndge, the Irft end of which was held by our infantly as
far as the Hoopstad road, ind the action became geV^ral!
!'• .i»i
i
I*,
i
m
;l
184 REMINISCENCES OF THREE CAMPAIGNS
Infantry sent out to support the Yeomanry were placed in
skirmishing order on the plain behind where the outposts
had been, and stopped the advance of the Boers. After this
there ensued a lull of an hour or so, when the enemy, finding
they were held, altered their tactics and endeavoured to work
round our left towards their own headquarters at Prispan.
Here they held two farms and had posted their artillery at
Spitzkop in the same direction, hoping doubtless to bring our
men within their range. This necessitated supports with a
couple of guns being moved against them so as to hold a low
ridge, hardly deserving the name of a kopje, but when this
was done the Boers withdrew before they could be shelled.
Their final manoeuvre was an attempt from the opposite
direction to outflank the Yeomanry who held our right, and
a body of them endeavoured to carry this out, but a reinforce-
ment of cavalry put an end to their hopes of succeeding.
It was a battle of manoeuvres, resembling a game of chess,
and was entirely one of riflemen ; ' neither side made use of
artillery, and after the contest had fluctuated all day, it died
gradually out towards the evening. Strange to say, though
it was estimated that 16,000 rounds had been fired, there were
no casualties on our side ; not a man or horse was hit ; but
regarding the Boers' side we knew nothing. Lord Methuen
had been out early and directed the fight, and when he re-
turned and the scouts came in, we also came back, having
had from various points a clear view of how near the Boers
were to Boshof, how enterprising they were, and how easily
they might at any time have shelled us had they possessed
one of their long-range guns.
By the beginning of May the plans of the Boers for captur-
ing Boshof had been so baffled that they were evidently
preparing to give them up as impracticable. Even at the
end of April our scouts reported that some of them had
moved off westwards, as if to waylay the road to Kimberley.
At this time too our reconnaissance columns ceased to find
them about the neighbourhood of the town, though some of
ours went so far and for so long as to have to send back for
f- ,sh supplies. They were seen by us in the town spread round
ji all directions, especially towards the east and north,
whence their heliographs were signalling in to Boshof from
every bit of rising ground. , „ . ,
These were most of the fights which went on round Boshof
while I was there, and after the one last mentioned there
were no further actions, or any fighting beyond an outpost
or two being shot at in the mornings.
I ought to mention with gratitude that Lord Methuen
SOUTH AFRICAN WAR ,85
™'[hr^^°^^?"."i*?'.°^ ''•'P'"8 ""'■' •« "'ways showed
for I ^^ "^^ ^'"'^"^?' """^ gave me whatever I oskS
condition, but in ho„ou?„f the eUu dl„*^^ "o„V"w'S^:^
^^lehr^'^ ""** '^^^^ *•""* ^ ^""^ look ekan by
candlelight. The mess was in a small house oDDosite tn
h« tent on the south side of Church Square^Tn tKddle
wnt ^!^ '• "^"Vk* T' "' P'"'''^"'* «>" cvening^as I^ev«
S ^rr* "lu^ ^^'^ ^"'"J"^* "^ t"^'"* tents, the tefk
ffirSIverhn >V '"'"''' °^ *""*''• P^^^e hospitels.
SmS^ t^fn.?^ T^' '"PPjy' K^™'' the wounds of the
^S^l.' '?'^'!:'<^"a' wounded, the Yeomanry, expanding
b li^ets, shrapnel, Vickers-Maxim guns, the R A MC T^tht
vanous battlefields of his column^ Methuen wa; iAteres^'
LZJIT*' "' """I '''^° ** ""=«»'«'« °f W'' stefl. and^W
a?dThf pomV^XV *' ''*'''""* ^^""^^^ '"»-
Lord Methuen spoke without any reserve about his battles
M.te«r; ^"''^' Modderand his'being woundS tiere and
P^tS^ ^S^"- ?' "^"j ^•*" *° ^S'** "Sain, and saW h^ ex
remember rightly this was the Yeoman referred to in . uter
elegmm fiom Kimberley which stated that 'a m. .r of
nl„f? '^ iu^ ^^'^' ^''° t°°'' away every vestiee^ of his
clothmg I have the best authority,' ^ntinued the telewam
for saymg that the incident is ^ssly misrepresent'Xhe
^unH ^r?-,'^'"'!?* exceptionaUy well, bandaging his
The nnlt 1- *'^!";« ^^ '="'* "' » "^ ^^ '^e wound^ed Umb
fhe only thmg taken was the wounded man's rifle, and The
^t^'7:^^-Z^Tl' t' «"*'^'' ambulance'no? com!
"ewa^^^^lr in^^'- . ^^ ^^ ""^ °f *« monument
beJ™-^ ^, Villebois's grave. The conversation then
&r! Ir™^™' T.f • *'*™'"« °" »•>« =««=«*» of lyddite shelU
V.ckers.Max,m shells, and artillery &« in general, and on tt'
Mil
-!^',.
I,
lit
i86 REMINISCENCES OF THREE CAMPAIGNS
difficulty of ejecting the enemy from trenches, such as those »t
Faaideberg, made in soft hollow ground as compared with the
ease with which they could be turned out of the stony kopjes.
Curiously enough, none of these experts knew whether there
were any bullets enclosed in the Vickers-Maxim shells, and
none of them knew the weight of a shrapnel ball. Methuen
had a high opinion of the utility of nursing sisters.
After enjoying the unwonted treat of a couple of beautiful
Havannah cigars, I took my leave. It we :, an unusual
experience, after a dinner party, to have a soldier emerge
from benea::h the shadow of trees, first present a glittering
bayonet at my stomach, and then hold the muzzle of a loaded
rifle within a yard or so of my head, while he told me to halt
and give the countersign. However, I pacified the wanior
by telling him that I was ' Friend,' and that the word was
'Jacobsdal,' whereupon the unpleasant objects were tpken
away, and I was saluted and told to 'Pass, friend,' and I
went out into the moonlight to the camp and found all in
bed, though it was not yet nine o'clock.
liie only other non-professional interest I can recall con-
cerning Boshof is that some alarmist got up a report that
the Boers were using poisoned bullets. I believe it created
some sensation in the home newspapers. I was questioned
about the matter, and the bullets and loaded cartridges, of
which we had plenty, were supplied to me. At a glance it
was plain that tb'? whole thing was a mistake. The bullet
and front part of the shell of the cartridge were, for lubricating
the grooves of the rifle, dipped in fat, and after some time the
fatty acids acting on the copper of the shell produced a green
coating of stearate or other salt of copper, which had an alarm-
ing appearance, but would, owing to its antiseptic properties,
have benefited rather than harmed a wound inflicted by the
bullet, even had the coating not been thrown off by the rapid
revolutions (2500 to 8600 per second) of the missile as it passed
through the air. It is probable enough that the centrifugal
force thus developed may purge the modem small-bore
mantled bullet of all impurities and even germs, and render
it aseptic.
XXXIX
Conditions at Boshof
Befoke taking leave of Boshof I may add a few words re-
garding the medical conditions there.
During the first half of April the climate was like that of
the Isle of Skye at its worst. Endless blankeU and rolls
SOUTH AFRICAN WAR
187
of h^ped up clouds swept over us, with no blink of blue to
break their dullness, and each cloud did not fail to besprinkle
us with Its exudations. Our men went about in heavy great-
coats, our officers in cardigan waistcoats and thick jerseys
under the^ tunics, and all were more or less miserable from the
cold. Yet until the middle of the month was past I could
not perauade my thermometer, even during the dark hours
before dawn, to descend below S9 degrees, and its maximum
durmg the day would even be 100-6 degrees. Had the wet left
us and the sun shone we should have been pretty weU off but
as It was the wet and chilliness kept up the number of cases of
dysentery and diarrhoea. My recollection is that it rained at
intervals aU night and pretty monotonously nearly every day.
and that we were only occasionally able to dry ourselves. One
evening I thought for a moment that peace had been declared
or some other momentous occurrence had Uken place, for the
whole camp broke suddenly out into loud and repeated cheer-
ing, but on going out to inquire 1 found it was because the
compassionate general had ordered every man a ration of
"un against the wet and cold.
The ridge dividing the higher from the lower plain at Boshof
and on which our camp lay, was so strongly impregnated with
iron that I found, by careful measurement, that the Magazine
Kopje which was a part of it deflected the compass 25 degrees
to the west even at a distance of 800 feet ; that the boulders
upon It deflected it when close to them in the same direction
for 15 d^rees ; and that even a fragment of them of the size of
a pea, when held close to the needle, moved its nor pole west-
wards for T degrees. Probably this was the reaso- vhy storms
of thunder and lightning were so intense over our camp
At aii events, the t jwn was notorious for its lightning storms,
its cnurcn spire was twisted by them, and one of its resident
medical men mformed me that on an average six of the in-
habitants were annually struck by lightning. The thunder
clouds and lightning usually came on in the afternoon, played
around at a distance on the plain, then came over us, returnina
two or three times after they seemed to be over, and inflicted
great discomforts on us. The accompanying hail drove wet
spray over everything in the tents and soaked ourselves,
the water on the ground converted the surface into lakes
whUe often we had to labour in vain in the dark to convey it
away by diggmg trenches round them. The trenches filled,
out the water remained in the tents notwithstandinc It
was wretched, and, it must be added, even sometimes tei^-
Mg. Experience made us more expert at protecting ourselves •
we poised everything upon pillars of bricks stolen ftom the
,FI
«
'■H
j
is
188 REMINISCENCES OF THREE CAMPAIGNS
cemetery walls; we moved to a piece of slig. tly higher
ground and encircled our dwellings with ditches over a foot
deep to convey the water away, got some tents which were
not so old and thin, and seized every available moment to
lug our bedding and baggage out to dry. But our thoughts
turned to the poor lads on the expeditions about, who were
lying on the veld not far ftrom us, who had not even the
protection of ,.ur leaking canvas.
After the middle of April the rainy season seemed to be
over, and with it the mosquitoes disappeared, and the dysen-
tery and diarrhoea diminished. Even then, however, the
climate was not one to be praised. In one, and perhaps more,
of his wonderful books. Rider Haggard ( ives a description
of a sunrise in Africa. But it seemed to me that the sun-
rises he describes are not African. In Boshof at all events
his ' rosy-fingered d..wps ' did not show themselves. There
when all was still dark, ere the flr^t peep of light had come,
the eastern sky was of a deep blue-black, dotted with the
Southern Cro.ss and constellations, cloven by the zodiacal
lance-head of white light tapering up from the horizon to
the zenith, so faint that one doubtoJ at times whether it
existed, yet clear and plain when one looked again, fading
inserMbly into the rest of the sky, and paling the stars that
shone through it. But this faded and disappeared for an
hour before the white border of light fringed the flat horizon
and showed that day was about to break. The white fringe
became brighter and changed into a vermilion of deep fiery
orange like the glow of a metal plate growing red hot, and
above it the stars went out and the blue sky became green.
All was usually cloudless, no rosy rays were seen, and there
was an angry tone that told of an arid land and a burning
day about to break. That was the usual appearance of
sunrise in the Orange Free State ; anything like the gentle
rose tints of an English or Scottish dawn was never visible ;
sunrise was a hostile, not a kindly thing. The temperatures
which had been perhaps 70 degrees at sunset, and had fa'len
an hour later to 60 degrees, and by bedtime to about 50
degrees, where it remained until morning, diminished to 40
degrees as dawn was breaking, again i-eached 50 d^rees at
sunrise, became 60 degrees when the sun had shone for an
hour, was 95 degrees at ten o'clock, and 107 degrees at noon.
As tie day was growing warmer, horrible things came out
to bask, whip-snakes glided out from the kopjes, locusts
rose as black clouds on the horizon and flew overhead in
rustling swarms like the noise of a rushing river, or alighted
on the ground as thick as autumn leaves in a beech forest ;
SOUTH AFRICAN WAR
189
•oorpions ran about catching the locuato in their ulawi and
^i?"" • ""* '""thwme whitish ant», nightmare ghouls,
r^l*^^ everywhere on the ground. ThSe *ere man,:
wii'a H^U,'""'?* *'*'' l'"" »|?!l niPP«" tJ>»t hannoni«rf
with a climate and a country which grew odious to us all
peopkd by mhabitants as hostile and irreconcilable as its
vermm. We had airo wmged pests in abundance. Thouah
the gentle mo8<juito had gone, the house fly replaced him,
Slill'fT^ "i^i"" T/°°^ "^ <'™''; crim«>n.headed
bluebottle flies frequently favoured us with their attentions,
and wasps swarmed in our tents and strove to buiM houses
m our beddmg We had even to kill snakes in our mefs!
tent. And we had to wage a warfare that knew no intAj.
mission with the other creeping creatures who at one time
rendered Pharaoh's Ufe hardly worth living.
Life m such conditions as these did not conduce to health
either m men or animjls, when everything in the shape of
provisions, sudi, for mstance, as sugar, came to us bro^ in
rolour from admixture with all the aith blown into iv with
the dust of the camping grounds, and when such occurrences
were to be daily witnessed as that of the cooks-^nd those
J'h.'J?!? J^^iIT"* *°°-««'"ring their cooking-pots with
the ^rth which lay under their feet and washing them with
hM,K, T " ^f-^ "^^ P"'*'"'' *° save** themselves
thetrouble of going ten paces to do so in pure running water.
What was termed by the Boers ' Paard-siekte,' or horse-
sickness, a species of pneumonia, ravaged the poorly-fed
and often overworked horses; it was said that twenty-flve
of the Yeomanry horses died from it in a single day, and a
S I r^t^.V^P'^'^J^^i"'- ^^ *" °"e morning four
which had died from it. There was also a plant resembling
SSk' °?"«^,*"''P-8«s» or 'tulp,' a species of bulbous lily!
with a double bulb, one above the other, which grew to the
height of eighteen or twenty inches at that season, and was
eaten by the unported horses, while the native-bred animals
^Z- r°^^ '}'' '* S"^""*^ 8"''* '!«* "»ion and
Wi^^rpplrfonieL"" " «°^ """"^ •"""- ''^ ^"^ ■* "*
There was altogether great need of a special sanitarv
corps for mdecd the camps were in most respects in .i filthy
frl? • w?"5 '* ''** '"*" "°"'^''" *■>"* ">a"y "f the offlcere
fell sick, that some regiments had more than half of their
offices h«l up, and that a special hospital had to be arranged
l^ki^ ^t" ! u*"^; °" ^r°" ''"^ ^^ '^°^ ^:th what
koked like typhoid fever, and most of the medical officers
were ailing, some havmg to be sent away on that account-
I !
m
H"i
1 . (ii
il
i\ \\
il
190 REMINISCENCES OF THREE CAMPAIGNS
while among the men, in addition to other illncM, an epidemic
of ' veld aoieii,' a kind of infectioui blistering of the »kin
which attacked every little scratch and prevented it from
healing, especially when the abrasions were upon the hands,
and which was due to a germ acting on weakened individuals,
broke out among them.
But of all the scourges typhoid was the worst. It was
already among the Boers in Boshof when we arrived there,
we too brought it from Kimberley and Modder River with
us, and it spread alarmingly among our troops. I had neittior
the time nor the opportunity of obtaining full inform: .1..11
about it, but what we all knew was certainly bad enough.
The cases of it t hich the Boers had sent in from Magersfontein
before our occupation were numerous and severe, and mostly
in the later stages of the disease, some arriving wildly delirious,
and others with perforation of the intestine. We ourselves
had to open an hospital for it in the schoolhouse at the comer
of the Market Square, cases came in from the troops lying
out in the veld as well .-.s from thoie in the town, and it was
soon filled and overflowing, and of the fifty cases it contained
thirty were typhoid. We were sending away batches of 50
and 60 whenever we could, of such as were able to be moved,
but this was not always possible owing to the atrocious
weather. By the 26th of April about 820 had been thus sent
off to Kimberley, neariy 6 per cent, of our strength, though
Kimberley itself was already overfilled both in its civil and
military hospitals ; yet we always had more coming in their
place, and ever 80, 68, and such like numbers remained, and
we had even to put some for a time into our operation tent.
They came pretty equally from all branches of the service,
none was exempt, but perhaps the class most affected was the
officers' servants ; and a large number of the mess cooks took
it, although they ate and drank the same things as we ourselves.
Before the middle of the month we had 257 cases of the
disease, with a mortality of 60, or 21-8 per cent.
More hospitals were established and a good many civilian
doctors were brought up and with few exceptions worked
heartily, though one of them, I regret to say, when requested
to attend the Schoolhouse Hospital in an emergency, replied
that there were limits to what a man is willing to do, and
declined. This was the one black sheep whom I met: he
openly professed that he had ' come to see what was to be
seen,'^not to do what was to be done. The devotion of all
the R.A.M.C. officers was beyond praise, and I never admired
the major so much as when he was hard pressed with work
and duty ; he complied unhesitatingly with the rp"'' un-
SOUTH AFRICAN WAR 191
NMOMble dcmandi if be could bring help to tbow who needed
It ; he never reftiied to tdce over any other mmn'i work ;
he WB» ahrey. about looking after ererything and every one's
comfort ; he anticipated every requirement ; he plunged
into the work in the operation tent ; he was never put but
by the moit ill-timed ini*rruption ; and when everything
lud been do and attended to, he dropped back into the
.ilent reserve which was hi* Ufuul. When matters were at
theu- worst our major wired fcr four nurses to be sent up to
assist with the typhoid cases, and endeavoured to obtain
lodgings for them in the town, but the Dutch, who were loading
the few wounded prisoners we had in Boshof with every atten-
tion, altogether refused to give house room to the sisters,
even for payment. The sisters came up, however, and did
excellently, havmg run the risk of being captured on tbt"
"^^'n"'.^*^ '* "^^ ■* °"* *""« reported that they had
actually beei. taiten prisoners between Kiraberley and Itoshof.
Now and then one came across a medical officer who held
the opinion that everything in the army medical service was
perfection, but even these, loyal though they were to their
corps, could hardly have been quite blind to its deficiencies
when they saw the conditions in Boshof. We wouW want
coverglasses to make blood flhns, there were none j micro-
scope shdes, they did not exist ; a microscope, Boshof did
not possess su«* a thing ; staining reagents, such things
were never heard of. Adhesive plaster ran done ; so did
calico bandages ; there was gypsum, but no muslin bandages
for applymg it ; the alembroth bandages were of only one sue,
and that was too narrow to be of much service ; there were
no abdominal binders ; there was no proper operation table :
there was hardly a parish doctor in all ScotUnd who would
not have been better supplied.
These and other defects were not due to any want of
interest on the part of Lord Methuen. He and Lieutenant
Ij— y wouH come in during the middle of our work, speak to
the sick and wounded, interest themselves in them, and make
a round among the wounded in the tents of the field hospital.
Others too came and would have supplied our deficiencies had
tftjy been allowed. Two oflicers' wives, Mrs. O'B and
™; ^TT"' contrived somehow to make their way through
to Boshof, were m possession of funds, and were most anxious
to supply us with thinjrs required for the equipment of the
hospital, which were ' • jds down to crockery ; they in-
formed themselves ai • . or wants, and left along with an
wcorted convoy for Kiu-uerley, intending to get the requisites
R>r the village school hospital sent through by a road-engine
, I
I I '
19a REMINISCENCES OF THREE CAMPAIGNS
tr»in. But I don't think th«y mat •Itowed to do >o. The
Red Cron, too, w«» contpicuoui by its total •btenoe.
When itending back our patients, we at flnt had no alter-
native but to transport them in buck-wagon» drawn by ojwn,
enUiling stow journeys. In this we were practically helpless,
for we possessed but three ambulance wagons, canable of
carrying four lying cases in each, while we had to despatch
a convoy arranged for, say, 18 cases, which rose before
departing to 68 sick (I cite actual oocurrences), and
the -onditfons of :ir transport le^, as will readdy^ be
imagined, much t. je desired. Things irnpioved somewhat
in the later days ; a better route, with Frankfort midway
in it, was presently established, so that patienta could be
rested, refreshed, and u.et by transport sent out from Kim-
berley. and be met by doctors and attendanU also commg
out from there. But what couW any service, robbed of iU
proper vehicles, do ? A few ambuknce cars did not go far
when batches of eighty patients had to be moved, and the
strain on the line of communication may b» vjdged from the
fact that ir three weeks we had to send down in the rudest
conveyances between three and four hundred s.ck and
wounded, without the numbers rer .ig in Boshof seeming
to diminUh. The best that was f ole under the curcuin-
stances was done, as each R.A.M.C. 01 er met with a difficulty
he rose to it and overcame it, but the was, so far as I could
hear, no fully organised h Ip from the .aedical headquarters,
and telegraphic inquiries failed to discover that any special
officer of the RJlJU.C. was in charge of the lines of com-
munication. T. e military gave all the assistance they could,
t d provided s /table escorts for the convoys of patients,
but, as already suited, the Boers did not make war upon our
sick, or molest in the smallest degree their convoys, so far
bs we in Boshof ever heard.
We had with us in Boshof a field hospital suppUed and
accompanied by a rich American. It had a curious history,
but I abstain &om leaking any comment on it.
XL
Boshof to Hoopstad
When the month of May arrived, and the rainy season was
fairly over, our future planii began to be the subject of camp
rumours and of private whisperings among those who were
supposed to be in cv- GeneraFs counsels. It had at one time
been imagined that we might be sent to relieve Mafeking,
SOUTH AFRICAN WAR 193
•nd thii ides died hud, but whether or not this had ever
been put of Lord RoberU'i and Lord Methufn'i desiRni,
it eame to be pretty plain to those of us who ponderrd over
the powibilitiet of the future that aome other deitination
wai more probable. Brandfort on the Bloemfontein -Pretoria
Une had Jiut been captured by the Commnnder-in-Chief, the
British had forced the passage of the Vanl River at Windsor-
town, and an advance into the Transvaal was bound to be
the next phase of the war. By this tiir 00, it was seen that
the resistance of the enemy m the Free State, and particu-
lulf """"^ "* ** Boshof, was weakening, so that it created
little surprise when the plan of our sweeping along the south
of the Vaal in harmony with General Archibald Hunter's
similarmarchalong its northern bank came to be foreshadowed,
«id preparations were made for initiating it by an advance on
Hoopttad, a journey of four or Bve days, which involved
our burning our boats behind us and phinging into a region
dMtitute of roads, railways, or other means of communication.
When it was now seen by us that the town of Boshof, pro-
vided with strong fortifications, was to be left with a moderate
force to garrison it, while the others moved on, each unit
hoped and prayed that it would not be one of those to be left
behind, but would be among those selected to go forward.
For by the 18th of May every one knew that Hoopstad was
where the blow was to fall, and that fiom thence we would
advance to join Roberts's mair army on the line between
the capitals of the Free State anu Transvaal.
The hum and bustle in the camps grew loud and intense.
A large body of lancers came in, the outer world whose exist-
ence we had almost forgotten broke in upon us, and our family
gatherings, where each knew his neighbour, were no more.
All day long we could espy clouds of dust from bodies of men
approaching us fh>m several directions across the veld ; in
the afternoons tired horses and dusty hungry men with un-
known faces commenced to crawl into our camps, and reveal
that they were ofBcers, medical and other, who had ridden
on before the regiments or units which were en the way to
complete Lord Methuen's Division to its full strength. Such
arrivals increased in frequency, and following them came in
bodies of foot, horsemen, mule-carts, buck-wagons, ox-wagons,
artillery, ambulance wagons, and all the paraphernalia of
war. Dust and tumult rose round and in Boshof, and by
nightfall the hum of voices, shouts of men, noises of mules
and cattle, bugle caDs, pattering of mallets driving tent-pegs,
and other sounds, made a Babel of the quiet place, and canvas
spires commenced to tower up all around, ghostly in the dim
■' '1
H j
; ' t
i I
f:
«il' :
;,
194 REMINISCENCES OF THREE CAMPAIGNS
moonlight and the faint reflections of the blazing, smoking
camp-ftres which gleamed in all directions about us. In came
the Munster Fusiliers, the Scottish Rifles, a weak regiment
with a strong band, the South Wales Borderers, the 4th
battery of Artillery with a couple of new Vickers-Maxim field
guns, and the Staffordshire Militia, most of them belonging
to ova own 20th Brigade, and forthwith set to work erect-
ing their tents and cooking their suppers. Some had come
fhjm Kimberley, some from Windsortown, and others from
Warrenton in the north ; it was a gathering ol the tribes.
To these arrivak our small medical contingent endeavoured
to show its best face, and was reviewed by the General and
Colonel Townsend. All acquitted themselves well, the gem
of the whole being M 's bearer company, which he had
trained in a few weeks, out of the unpromising militiamen
and others who had been given him, and converted into a
capable and useful set of ambulance men ; they did better
than any one could have believed possible, not only in ambu-
lance and wagon drill, but in compressing arteries, extemporis-
ing splints, and using bandages. One of them, H , gained
renown by preparing a finger-splint out of an envelope and
pencil he had in his pocket.
All the regiments whom it was intended to take on the
expedition were paraded and underwent an inspection by
their medical officers as to their fitness for the march, in order
to ensure, if it might be, a strong and enduring body of men.
Each man was carefully looked over and rejected if he showed
signs of any defect or weakness that might impair him, and
his name was placed on the roll if he were satisfactory. In
a force which had to carry with it the means of existing and
fighting for perhaps thirty days without fresh supplies, and
was to be completely isolated, the regulations of warfare,
though ordinarily they are somewhat elastic, were insisted
on with unusual stringency. Each man, horse, mule, bullock,
or other item was counted in each regiment or vmit, and
each unit drew its own rations for tMrty days from the
commissariat stores, and carried them with it, the rations
being exact weights of biscuit, tiimed beef, a little tea, sugar,
salt, and pepper for the men, and oats, bran, salt, and bales
of compressed hay for the animals.
There were sad faces among the rejected, as those who were so
happy as to have been chosen set to work on their preparations.
Transport suddenly became the all-absorbing topic, every one
looked over his kit to see what he could best spare in order
to reduce his baggage to the required weight of 85 pounds
for an officer, and 10 pounds for a private, for if anything
SOUTH AFRICAN WAR
195
beyond this were Uken it would be thrown out on the veM.
Blankets were sewn up into sleeping-bags, for no tents were
to be permitted ; even the medical contingent was allowed
only the operation tent and a few others for wounded and sick.
When one came to put a pair of blankets, a change of clothing,
soap and a brush into a package and weigh it, there was little
to spare to make up the 85 pounds, and books, paper, and
tobacco had to be carried in very small amounts. My little
cart carrying my bag, rugs, and tiny patrol tent, was an object
of envy. The camps presented a new and unwonted aspect,
with the long rows of men passing one by one through the
operation tent for their medical examination, the horses
being shod, the equipment of every kind looked to and
arranged, and the stores weighed and sorted. No dogs
were to be taken beyond the strictly regimental ones, and
even these had to be certified by the commanding officer
and receive a special pass ; all others were to be destroyed
at the first halting-place. Unattached persons, like dogs,
were not on any account to accompany the column, leave to
do so was granted only to Press correspondents and such as
could show legitimate business.
The number of rejections was surprisingly large. Out
of a batch of 880 from one militia regiment, 212 were kept
back as unfit ; and of the total of that same regiment at
least 827 shared the same fate.
Unexpectedly at half -past seven on the evening of Tuesday,
tiie 18th of May, the order came for the head of the column to
depart, and all postal communication was put a stop to.
Early next morning, almost before the full moon had stt
and day began to take its place, those who were going with
the van were riding round our tents bawling their farewells,
as we rubbed our awaking eyes. By the time I had washed
and sallied out, a long stream of dust extending into the east
over the plain towards the Spitzkop Hill proclaimed that
the foremost sections had really started and were already
well on their way. Methuen's plans were also now fully
revealed; he himself was to lead the way to Hoopsted
with one half of the force, and General Paget in command
of the other half was to follow immediately behind. Instruc-
tions as to the march were given out ; starting every morning
at six, we were to trek until it became too warm at nine or
ten, rest and feed the animals until four, and then mareh
on till seven or eight. Cavalry were to scout in front over a
breadth of three miles ; a mile in their rear came the infantry
and ambulance ; then followed the baggage wagons in lines
of three abreast ; behind came more infantry and ambulance ;
, *
n
:|
l»
1 * ,
I..
u
r
I
196 REMINISCENCES OF THREE CAMPAIGNS
with still more infantry and cavalry bringing up the rear. On
the flanks, 1000 yards distant to right and left, there marched
bodies of infantiy to protect us, and outside them again were
cavalry scouts. We ourselves were in Paget's column and
were ordered to set ofl next morning at six, prepared to con-
tinue trekking for twenty-one days. , , , , ■
Though the day was dull and grey, with a cold gale blowmg,
our last tent was struck at midday, our wagons were in-
spanned, and everything, that could be spared was packed
upon them. The Boer clergyman, the Rev. Mr. B , agam
turned up in the afternoon with his camera, and was busy
ta^ig snapshots of the preparations, and on this occasion
no one concerned himself to stop him flrom doing so. To-
wards evening a marked ' counter-sunset ' appeared in dense
stratus clouds, lasted from 4.80 to 5.88, and slight traces
of it endured even until six o'clock, long after the sun 'lad
set ; its duration being forty -five minutes, or indistinctly
even eighty minutes. Through it rose the moon at full,
shining over the now tentless expanse co' kl with cattle,
horses, mules, and wagons, and dotted wiV irequent camp-
fires ; as it climbed up behind the watery clouds it shone
through them as through frosted glass, its bleared disk
threw a halo around it, which gradually expanded like an
opening pupil, wherein Jupiter and a hazy star or two showed
here and there. The ominous appearance of the sky fascin-
ated me, and many remarked it, auguring a bad night and
wet weather for our mareh on the morrow ; but it was not
to be so, as night advanced the wind changed from the north
into the south, the sky cleared, and a glorious though bitterly
cold night was followed by a fine day, with half a gale blowing
at intervals.
Punctually at the time appointed we set out and rode
east by south-east over very fair roads until half-past eight,
when we outspanned for the day at Spitzkop. For the first
five miles the plain was fiat, then succeeded wooded kopjes,
the highest of which, called the Spitzkop, was ahnost pictur-
esque, and at its foot we halted.
In the afternoon we had by much diligence got ourselves
into apple-pie order for starting at four, as had been appointed,
but our punctuality was superfuous, for though the advanced
guard got off then, we had to stand about and sicken in the
sun long ere the word to advance was passed backwards
through row after row of wagons, and a long time elap^
before we got under weigh. When we did so, we beheld for
a long time nothing round us but a sea of dust out of which
emerged like masts of ships the wagoners' long bamboo
SOUTH AFRICAN WAR
>97
whips, and as we made our way through it until it became
dark, all we could discern was that we were advancing to the
north-east at a pace of about two miles an hour. When the
moon rose, it gave us the points of the compass, threw its
Ught over the land, and revealed that we were emeiging
from a district full of menacing kopjes which overhung our
road, and that when we had got free from their frowns we
entered on a plain marked by but few and distant examples
of these natural fortifications. The Zwaartkopje, steep
and forbidding, was the last which we passed, as it touched
the very road we followed, and we were well pleased to be
freed from the dangers such spots might have concealed.
While we were in the region of the kopjes every care was
taken that the disaster of Sanna's Post should not be repeated
with our force, all dangerous spots were occupied and handed
over from one regiment to another until we had passed out of
their perils. Half a degree from the moon the planet Jupiter
was in conjunction with her, and was a redeeming sight in
the long, tedious, and dusty drive, in which our direction
lay for several miles to the north-east, then turned eastwards,
until finally about nine o'clock we saw to the north of us
bivouac fires in a row for a quarter of a mile to right and
left, where the colunm head had arrived and were setthng
for the night at Mahemsfontein. But it was half-past ten,
and we were ready to sink down with fatigue before we
arrived there. It was midnight before I could pitch my little
tent and crawl into it.
At half-past three m the lunming the head of the column
set off again, but we were no- warned by experience and were
able to continue our rest until four, when we packed and in-
spanned by the light of Jupiter and the moon and set off
in the cold darkiiess. Soon we overtook the slow laggard
ox-transport and the body of the column ; the sun rose on a
pleasant bracing morning, in which we were marching to the
north-east, intending to accomplish fourteen miles in one
trek ; but by the time we had covered eight the sun became
hot, oxen began to die and wagons to stick, and a few had
to be abandoned with all their contents. It was evident
that we should lose all that we had if we persisted ; wiser
counsels prevailed, and we stayed our advance at Haarte-
beestfontein, in a country park-like from scattered trees,
where we saw game, wildebeest, koraan, and other fauna
of the kind. All of the farms we had passed on the way were
deserted, windowless, bare, gaunt, and naked, with only
sometimes a few cattle and stock to be seen. All the farm
people had gone, the men to fight in the ranks of our enemies.
i
ii
M
198 REMINISCENCES OF THREE CAMPAIGNS
and the only human beings were the Kafirs. We touched
nothing, and any cattle we saw were left to wander at their
will or be annexed by the Kafirs, as generally happened.
The latter did not fear us, but came over with supplies of
eggs and vegetables, in scanty quantities however, for the
first column had been before us and gleaned the most of
such provisions. , „ ,. ,
Sickness already began to break out; the first column
were sending back their invalids to us, our own men also fell ill,
and as we had the means of carrying only six in our ambu-
lances, the outlook was an evil one for whosoever collapsed.
I mentiored that the houses where we might have left them
were ruinous and uninhabited ; we could not send the in-
valids back to Boshof through a hostile country even if we
had possessed the ambulance wagons in which to send them,
nor could an escort be spared. The only resource, seeing
that our bearer companies had only at the most three ambu-
lance wagons instead of their proper nun>ocr of ten, was to
carry in these as many as we could, and place the remamder,
whatever their condition, on the buck-wagons and ox-wagons
as these became emptied by our consumption of the stores
they carried. . , ., j
When we left Haartebeestfontein m the afternoon and
continued our forward way, it was dark before the rear goc
started, and soon the obscurity was so great that all one could
see was a long train of wagons moving 800 or 1000 yards off
on the right hand, parallel to ours. As it became yet darker,
and the moon had not appeared, all knowledge of what was
going on around soon became lost, the only object I could
discern being the back of the wagon in front of me, looming
as a black mass against the sky. I followed its outline
closely as my only guide and safeguard, for we were no longer
on a road, but striking across the veld, and whenever I saw
one side of the wagon heave up I knew that it was oyer an
ant-hill, or when it went down with a crash I knew it was
in a jackal's hole, and drew promptly to a side to save my
slender wheels from being wrecked. I had several narrow
escapes, especially from the holes, which were from one to
two feet deep. My luminous compass indicated north-east,
but the stars told me that we were really bearing almost due
north. It seemed in the dark a long solitary drive, and it
was eight o'clock before the moon rose and began to show that
others beiJe myself were trekking along in silence. Against
its red disk one saw the distant outline of men, horses, oxen,
and wagons, minutely silhouetted, and realised that the
oolunm was still in some kind of order. The moon also showed
SOUTH AFRICAN WAR
199
the holes and obstacles in the veld, so tkut they could be
aToided, and I was very thankfiil for its help. Presently
it revealed a file of wagons moving along on the left, and so
far we had managed to preserve our order and were marching
along in three lines, but before our halting-place was reached
we got mixed up in much confusion.
Our halt was at Drifontein, and towards nine we perceived
the bivouac fires there ; our cattle seemed to recognise their
significance as well as we, and perhaps the road, which had
been atrocious, had mended a little, but however it was we
seemed, contrary to the usual, to get on faster after we saw
them glitter, and by ten o'clock we were in. What a jumble
of our fine order I Ox-wagons, mule-wagons, soldiers, ambu-
lances, that should have been nicely separate, were all in-
termingled ; yet each unit stuck together somehow, or if
separated mostly dodged through the mass of wheels and
hoofs and got to its own again ; fer my part I stuck resolutely
to the wagon before me where I believed I had seen my
portmanteau deposited. For some unknown reason, un
arriving, we found orders to quit our usual post with the
rearguard, and to move on to the front, so we threaded our
darkling way among bivouac fires, men, carts, mules, and
oxen, until out heads whirled and we despaired of its ending,
and finally settled down to outspan on what seemed to us
in the dark to be a nice rising ground above and to the west
of the farm of Drifontein.
On many accounts I felt glad to have arrived. Dying
cattle had bestrewn the latter half of our route, huge lorries
were in consequence abandoned with all the provisions they
contained, carts, even stout Scottish carts, with broken
wheels, left behind, were too vivid a reminder of the fate
that would have been mine had any similar mishap occurred
to the spokes of my buggy wheels, which were gossamer in
comparison with these stout vehicles. It had been with
trembling that I had nursed it from every jolt.
When morning came we foimd we had been sleeping on
the garbage heap of the farm, where bones and the remains
of slaughtered animals were shot out, but as all was dry it
did not matter. The farm was a large and fine one, lying
in a hollow in the midst of salt pans and vleis of sweet water,
and surrounded with trees planted with a good deal of taste,
far utility as well as shelter and appearance, all differing
from the usual farmhouses in that quarter. We learned that
it belonged to an Englishman of the name of R , who had
N!en rrested by the Beers and removed to Bloemfontein
or elsewhere, while his wife and daughters, who still inhabited
■■'l\
1 ■!
II ''i '
it ' 1
i
200 REMINISCENCES OF THREE CAMPAIGNS
it, were 'n ignorance of his fate. Some time afterwards I
read in .. English newspaper that he had returned from
captivity and appeared m Kimberley with his wife, two
daughters, and a six-year-old son, having suffered severe
privations at the hands of some of the Boers. The farm was
raided by a party of the enemy under Captain Hendrik Smit ;
Mr. R was in bed with rheumatic fever, but was made to
get up, and was placed in a cart, while his wife and children
were compelled to walk. They started at four in the after-
noon and walked twelve miles, when they halted for the night.
Next morning thty walked from six to ten miles, when the
ladies were unable to proceed farther. Another cart was
commandeered for the family. Two days later they arrived
at Fetrusburg. There they were housed in a dirty room
with a mud floor, and were given nothing to eat or drink
until next day at noon, when they received some meaUes.
They were in the hands of the Boers for only a fortnight,
but during that time Mr. R became so ill that he had to
be attended by a Boer doctor, through whose influence the
family was released. He was still, added the newspaper,
in ignorance of the fate of his farm and belongings.
The daylight, beside this pretty farm, which was by far
the most desirable we had seen in the Free State, revealed
to us a broad and deep ravine or sluit crossing our road to
the north, and it was the cause of a long delay, for its banks
and bottom were of deep soft sand, so that each wagon
required to have an extra team of sixteen oxen, in addition
to its own, harnessed to it before it could be dragged across,
and from the depths of the sluit resounded a pandemonium
of roars, wails, shouts, and oaths, as down the steep nearer
bank dipped the long bulky black train, and ascended the
farther bank with toil, pain, and sweat, until it began to reach
the firmer ground behind and disappear from sight across
the wavy veld. As we stopped there, wearily waiting for
three hours, I put the hobbles on my pony and collected the
bulbous plants which were growing on the plain, some of
which were beautiful enough to be cultivated in an .English
greenhouse. But at last we got oft and struck northwards,
passing over plains, plains, and ever more plains, desolate
beyond description, a flat sea of land, bordered by the dome
of heaven, where even a single low bush was a relief to the
monotony. By eleven o'clock we had covered nine miles,
for the going was good, and got among some threatening
kopjes which our troops had occupied, and where, beside a
little farm, there was a small dam or vlei, which our tired
and thirsty horses &irly rushed if they were free to do so.
/IM
SOUTH AFRICAN WAR mi
In pity to my Basuto 1 quitted the column and drove him
towards it, disregarding some warning shouts, and he plunged
nght into it in his eagerness to quench his thirst. Abut
He sank in the deep mire around it, and, entangled by the
sinkmg cart, floundered, sank deeper, and horse and buggy
stuck fest and were going always down. I jumped out and
with difficulty obte-ied foothold enough to assist him,
showed him how beut to use his strength, got him to move a
little, then by degrees to turn sideways, and so drew him and
the vehicle out, led hun round to a less dangerous spot where,
with a little management, for he was very Wghtened, he went
m far enough to reach the water and get a drink. I led him
away to some distant grass, hobbled him, and let him graze.
It was well I did so, for at once the orders came that we were
to set off again in two hours, and no forage could be given
to the other horses who had been haltered on the bare earth
by the halting-place of the wagons. The feed he had so
obtemed enabled him to withstand the fatigue which was
telling sorely on all our transport animals, especially on the
oxen, which are dependent on the long rests when they may
wander and graze. The cause of our haste was that Lord
Methuen, who was one march ahead, was expecting a flght
and required our help. For two days the Boers had been
prowlmg around us, but in the forenoon, on our way, we had
rmde some of them prisoners, and from them we learned that
of the commandoes about, some were becoming so discouraged
that they were inclined to come in and give themselves up,
and indeed that batches of fifty or thereby were on their way
to surrender to Lord Methuen's force. Notwithstanding, we
set off once more at one o'clock, at least the head of the
column started then, and good progress was made, for the
going was now good, the plains again firm, dry, and level,
with only a few low kopjes far distant to the right and left,
and quickly we picked up the main body. One or two
farmhouses appeared in the distance, some vleis of sweet
water were seen to the east and west, and the existence of
sericulture was testified to by fences of cactus plants on the
boundaries of &rms, or surrounding a few cultivated fields.
The state of our cattle, however, was so serious as to makp
It necessary to call a halt, and we pulled up at Aaronskiaal
m the early evening, to feed and rest them a little, for now
the orders were for us to set off again in four hours and
march all night with short rests, covering a distance of twenty
to twenty-four miles so as to reach Methuen and give him
such help as he might waiit in the battle which was con-
fidently anticipated. However, a telegram was received
' Mil
Vil
i !'
U!'
303 REMINISCENCES OF THREE CAMPAIGNS
that the commando in front of Methuen had surrendered to
him and we might halt a whole day. This was a joyful re-
prieve : we hung a lantern on n bBmboo stick, guthered round
It, and had a good supper, u glnd evening, and a quiet night.
In the morning we disdained to rise before seven, when every
man seized a bucket or basin, gul » little water, and retured
to the most secluded comer of the spacious veld, stripped
oil and shook his dusty clothes, and had a refreshmg sponge
down before breakfast. Luxury 1 Then came in the news
tliat Methuen had entered Hoopstad without meeting any
resistance, which enabled us. freed from the expectation of
having to fight a way through, to prepare ourselves for the
long waterless journey of fifteen or twenty mUes that Uy
before us, and which had to be accomplished before we could
have more than an hour or two during which to rest our
transport animals. ab*ady dreadfully done up, and who were
quite unable to get up a greater pace than two mU» an hour.
The farmer at Aaronskraal was an old man, and his lout
sons were in the field against us, but they came in and made
their submission, and we purchased suppUes from them,
paying by cheques which could not be cashed until the
termination of the war, but were nevertheless readily accepted,
which we considered a significant sign.
In the afternoon a procession of horsemen was observed
pacing slowly towards us across the plain, the foremost
rider holding a white flag conspicuously before him over his
horse's head ; they were a conunando of the Orange Free
Staters come to make their peace, as they found, they said,
that we were too many for them. Their advances were met
by the olive branch.
On other grounds than consideration for our animals we
were glad of the interval in which to refit. The fever was
dogging our steps ; its power of impeding us daily increaswl !
and at Aaronskraal we had five-and-twenty men lying under
the shade of our operation tent, nearly all typhoids, and all
fallen dangerously ill since we had left Boshof. It was sad
indeed, and dreadful for those for whom no room could be
found in the ambulances. They had to be brought along
with us in the bullock carts his, and givmg them liquid
food and morphia when req. .-d, was all that could be done
for them. It was impossible to give them more than one day
of rest, for Methuen was soon again calling to us to come
6n with all speed. We therefore put some ammunition bis-
cuits and a morsel of biltong in our haversacks, filled our
water-bottles, upsaddled and set off in the evening. My
pony was always a timid nervous creature, and had not
SOUTH AFRICAN WAR
»3
noovercd from his fright at the slough ; on this oocuion he
hjd not been wateied, and when I drove him out to one of
the waUnng-pIaces to give him a drink before the long dry
trek, he took fright at h white tin bucket nnd cun glittering
in the twilight, shied at the cactus hedges we had t<i pass
through, backed, turned, reared, and became so unmanage-
able that he had to be petted, soothed, and led through the
obstacles to the column. All that march he was nervous
and jumpy, and without this it was a trying experience
enough. It was a misty starlit night when we got on the road,
the obscuring dust of our caravan spread far and near and
above us, while the moon was now waning and would not rise
for many hours. If we were reaUy following any road, it
ooula not be seen, but we appeared to be proceeding right
across rough country; the ant-hills and jackal-holes called
for anxious navigation, and even when moonlight appeared
at nme o clock it helped little. Yet it was rather picturesque
as Its fsmt light revealed that we were passing through a
flat strath, wmdinp our way among trees across what was
probably the dry upper reaches of a tributary of the Vaal
which takes its rise thereabouta, the broad depression deep
with sand, very soft and entirely waterless. Until this stiath
hod been reached our course had been a gradual ascent, and
after we had crossed it the acclivities became greater j we
had to climb up long lanes in the sand, necessitating pro-
longed rests for the cattle, and things became greatly mixed
The anunals grew exhausted as they laboured with silent
footfiBlls through sand as deep and soft as on a sea beach
above Wgh-water mark, pulling the creaking masses of the
wagons behind them, and moving ghost-like on the right hand
and the left. As the hours went on more wagons broke down
and had to be abandoned, cattle dropped in their harness
and were left lying, fresh oxen being attached in their place ;
™S.*i ^ ^"^ *''*"' °*^"^ ^°^^ recover after a little,
nibble grass, rise and begin to graze, and survive in the country
until some one took possession of them. The horses and
mules also became knocked up, some of them were dead
beat, drivers grew reckless, and when an animal wouU &U
the next team would drive right over it. This went on unta
one o clock m the morning, when the worst of the ascent was
over, the ground became firmer, and we got word to outspan
for a couple of hours. Such a brief respite forbade aU thought
of unshipping any rugs, and after having got a little soup
and a fmgment of a smoke, we lay down in our greatcoate
•mong the wheels and had an hour of repose ; but the ooU
was too great, indeed it was bitter, and we awoke shivering,
'
.i^
i'i
ii r
'l' .
'i.
J04 REMINISCENCES OF THREE CAMPAIGNS
wont to the neuMt c»mp-flre and made loroe warm ooftee,
:wiw.^.^n5. General Methuen. W. had .till thirteen
mile, before water could be reached, and we had to be off ra
rjlarter of an hour. Down went the coffee, harness and
baggage rope, wen- looked to, I .prano into mv <»rt, and in
^^TCntSterwards wa« lo.t in the Sark c»cle beyond the
liht of the fire. By the dim light of the moon we could see
Xt we werTmoviAg onwards in three irregular lme«, with
m?w Wr: four, five, and sometime. .« wagons lost them-
Sfve.7Jid UUed on to anything that «emed to be movmg
»nfidenSy enough to be a probable guide The overwork
:^dwL.t of watJ was telling ever more badly on tt^anmia^
and when the dawn came m we could see how deadly weanea
?£ey wS^ The oxen walked atong dragging theurlegs, with
a sulky^ression of their mouth', the'^ Ubour^ re.Dmi-
tion siundid like beUow. a. they moved Mongside of us,
iw Sed and riavered and long string, of mucus hung
dk.^ te)m their mouths, they snatched at ai:y morsel of
!^ as?hey pushed along the road, now and the" they went
Su^ mad and in spite of their drivers would suddenly make
2 wrfTto a place wtere they seemed to think the road would
Se *si«, aSd wagons int^rkKJced «"« a "ass ofheavmg
backs, wild eyes, and long tossmg pomted horns. Then rwe
She wild cries of the bUcks. their long heavy lashes cradted
1^: rifles as the weighty strokes told unceasmgly on the sid^
and backs of the poor brutes, urgmg them °n J't » Wtte
farther ere they feU down to die and were cut loose for others
tol^^iS in. There they were left with their necks bleeding
tm t^r^pe harness, obstructing the road, and round them
and over them went the convoy. Anythmg to get on. The
mules were the next to give in, and some of them ^o lay down
and died. It was a heU of cruelty, which may haje t^"
n^sary ; doubtless it was so, but it wa. an awful thm^to
seTand I in my egg-shell of a cart was helpless m the midst
^it Yet fearful Is was the confusion in the centre, it was
»mforttog. when the sun rose at seven, to see the fiankmg
3s to out on our sides in perfect order l'~P"gJ'«tch
^r the safety of the mass from outward attack. But even
?he« tL men were falling out tired and exhausted, and we
wo^d pa» some of the vanguard lying with their peatcoats
Tnd rifles dead beat in the middle of the wadway ''here they
SLi lain down unable to advance a foot farther. No doubt
She rearguard awoke them and brought tb-m on. In the
SSHnd clouds of dust stalked the ""w^™JJ.tacl
drivers, plying their long waving whips, some of them nov
SOUTH AFRICAN WAR
ao5
diwed up like Britith wldim, with helmeti, grrateoati.
•nd even putteen, wld to them u discarded dren by the
wldien when their new winter kit wai iuued.
By the morning light we taw that the ground we were
travenmg m an easterly direction, in the depth of a foot of
•andy soil, was a *ttoneless plain, like a solid sea of gentle
wavM, not a kopje showing m any direction for fifteen miles
round. Loose though the sand was it was covered with grass
and formed the best pastoral country I hod observed in South
Africa. Among the grass were strange plants, long trails
of weepers, pkints of the cucumber species, leaves of unknown
bulbous plants, and plants with leaves resembling ivv and
ground ivy. It was interesting, though perhaps it couM
not be called pretty.
Shortly after nine in the morning we had accomplished our
forced march of fifteen miles, and reached Graspan, or Niekerk-
skuil, even the best of us very cross and tired. We were
glad to lie down. Each man sought out a comer, got the
sottest thing he could lay his hands on to put under him,
and had a few hours' sleep ; whUe the wretched animals,
released (torn their harness, spread over the grass, prevented
from straying too far by their native drivers, whom nothing
seemed to tire.
All too soon we had to stir again, for two companies were
gomg on with a train of provisions for Lord Methuen, and we
were to accompany them. We hardly seemed to have shut
our eyes when the cattle, improved by the brief graze and rest,
were bemg driven in, the mules that had employed their
freedom in trying to eat our knapsacks, drinking up our
loapy washmg water in preference to the clean which was
offered to them, treading on our belongings, knocking over
our tent, and annoying us by playing other sly mule tricks,
were mspanned, and we were off with the sick whose disposal
was becoming a serious question. Our interval of rest had
seemed to be short, but it was really evening, on 19th May,
when we again rode forwards into the darkness, and the
succeedmg night trek, except that it was shorter, resembled
those that had gone before. For hours we went on half
asleep, with fewer hardships to the animals; the black
quadrangular blocks of wagons, drawn by their sixteen
crawhng objects, went gliding in spectral pairs silently save
for the creaking and the wagoners' whips and cries, and in
the deep sand ghosts of men in black greatcoats came and went
'" w u j"* °^ **** gloom. But there was little else to note.
We had been insensibly ascending a plateau which shelved
upwards towards the east, but now we came to its edge, and
im
r
ii
ill
«,6 REMINISCENCES OF THREE CAMPAIGNS
_, j,__ Mil in raadt Uke w»t«Toouwet, deep
toon were going o"*","Il' "* "T?! Xioft land, and nrnt
*^* T^1^''o7tS: a?c2TutediZlids wm a difilcult
thus Vrosi-ting I <»me^ss -J„"^'^f,i,^'eSeirens.
^Ue? in a .hallovr ^to^t^^^^^^fA^^ »rt^" Kafir <J™
"1 waTSter'luncheon, indeed nearly three o'cloclc befor.
It was a«" i"Ji ' u of traffic to permit our party
SOUTH AFRICAN WAR
ao7
to»d rmn down and up thew ; above the ford a wall of Ioom
•tone. croMcil the river and broke the force of the cunwit.
III!!..H 1 T »^* '""* *"" " ^^" "'" °" "hich pedettriani.
could pick their way acroH. Fearing for the behaviour of
my pony on the steep bank. 1 kept a tight rein, which wh« a
mitUke, for the creature, better BcqUHii.ted than 1 with African
ways, relented it, shook hia head and tugged until I per-
ceived that he desired to be left quite loose. I therefore gVve
him hM own way. when he at once proceeded, throwing
himself back so as to act as a drag, to walk and slide down the
incline look to the water as if he had been used to such work
all bis life, which was probably the case, crossed without hesita-
tion although the water reached to his body and even into
the cart, climbed with his whole strength up the opposite
6«ik, and fainded me cleverly and safely at the top Pi*
S^ !?""E-'i.'?>>''"°.'*" "*">' "" 'he oxen and mules o,
the carts which followed, for they did not negotiate the drift
weU. Boundered about, required much dashing in the water
and hishing by the drivers, and there was gnat shoutins
and excitement while many men had to put their shouklen
to the wheels before they couW be got up the bank after
crossing. But nothing went seriously wrong, and the major,
who was nding, and I went on and entered Hoopstad
t4l
Hoopstad
?„^?r^e„"?u fJ™" P*"* °' P°""^'>' ^«" inhabitants,
and for a South African town was rather picturesque, perched
M It was on the brink of the plain which here terminated in
the precipitous bank of the Vet River. Bekiw wound the
J. ^il^'.u^ T ~""' "°"'^ •* '""d «c«>ss the country
V I. J !3 , *' °^ *"** growing on the top of the cutting
It had made for itself. The town was level, and its centrS
piesentod a gigantic new church of yellow freestone built
in good Gothic architecture, English in every inch of its design
even to the woodwork of its windows and doors. Round
tlie churdi was a grassy square enclosed in barbed wire fencing
supported on rude posts. The houses and s" ets were laid
out in regular quadrangles. Hoopstad con% yjd, in spite of
Its regularity, something of the impression of a German
townlet m a district which, lying remote from railways,
«^ preserved its national features unadulterated; and in-
deed most of thenames of the shops and stores were German
-Hertz, Cohn, WerdmUUer, etc. The houses were good and
!
tp
";■
Mi
-I
208 REMINISCENCES OF THREE CAMPAIGNS
clean and had an air of substantial prosperity. A few,
S Appeared to be the most modem, possessed verandahs
Ju^nh.8 round them, the others had merely a big step or
^stoep^ ^circling them, constructed of stone, a yard in
br^ad^th and half of that in height, on which were seated the
townspeople in their family groups, enjoymg the air and
.rfifC^ H«.«ed tidilv but without show, discussing no
douM the mTddt d^- kha^i-clad horde who had invaded
them ^i^y sho;ed no want of confidence m us, they had
traW no cause, for all of our men were orderly and well
Shtt ?nd ^n fraternised with those who were wilhng
to do so It took no long time to see the town, for it was
c^mpac? and everywhere round it there was but one step
SKit and the^eld, and all the exits were blocked by
Sd wire fences placed there by our people for niilitarj-
re^^s ^ere was little to be seen beyond the few houses,
reX'rch. two small hotels, the Landrost's office, and some
s"r shops, which were closed as it was Sunday ; but there
were s°y back doors at which the proprietors were with little
dfflcuty persuaded to sell to our officers and others matches
provUions" some exceedingly «.arse tobacco, and such other
oimnle thinss as were obtainable. . , . , j
Ts our^y gathered in, the numbers of the sick assumed
alamLgp^i^ons. We commenced the day with seventeen
undSowch^ge, but shoals poured in from everywhere; the
Yortehire Light Infantry sent us thirty-two >»?«. and so
H went^n until by evening there were somethmg like 110
who were too ill to proceed farther; some had on^r sores on
The f^t or such like incapacitating ailments, but there were
m^nv who were very seriously ill with typhoid fever Large
Z^meZs had to be made; the Landrost's judgment-
SSrto be taken possession of (commandeered, as we
S^d n^w learned to designate requisitioning) , and as t^
was not large enough, the schoolhouse as well ; and beds
Tnd such like had to be exacted from the hotels and the
^bSints ; stretcher beds were at once ordered to be m^e^
Slat a high price ; but it was done considerately and there
was nothing which was not paid for, and well paid. For
rts si^ the Landrost's hall made as good an hospital as codd
^ve W found ahnost anywhere at that tune ; .the school-
^uL was sLuer; the former held only thirty sick, but th
r^n«e (tot into other places or into tents, and somehow it
^s a"^compUshed before "ightfaU. The comfort »
^^ was wonderful considering all thmgs the patients
^^ut into clean rooms, had good beds, clean blankets
S«n Wn, etc.. but the medical and surgical supplies were
SOUTH AFRICAN WAR
209
sadly deficient ; there was only one clinical ther nometer, and
that was a broken one, there were few medicines, and so on.
Two women volunteered to assist with the nursing, a whole
clinical thermometer was procured from somewhere, every
requisite was, through the energy of the medical corps, pro-
vided in some fashion, and our quartermaster, invaluable
in s-i -v. snergencies, saw that proper stores of food and other
I cuisites v.'or. 'eft with those in charge ; while the civilian
t iiotor remair ' u behmd to deal with what must have been
i.) i'ght task.
I't^r - council of war of the principal officers had been
held in the afternoon, it was announced that our next destina-
tion was to be Bothaville, and that we were to start for it
in the morning. It touched us deeply to have to leave our
soldiers and some friends who were officers alone in that
remote and far from friendly little Dutch town, &om which
no postal communication was possible, but it was impractic-
able to bring on any of the sick.
XLII
HooPBTAD TO Bothaville
On leaving Hoopstad we were told that our waterless forced
marches were to be at an end, and that during the next ten
days or fortnight we would progress ^y regular treks, up the
southern bank of the Vaal, sweeping it clear of all enemies
as we went, starting daily at four in the morning, halting at
nine, resting until five, and then continuing the march until
eight, when we would bivouac for the night.
The nights had become bitterly cold, and the morning
treks were marked by benumbed fingers and toes, and general
crossness or at least discomposure.
On leaving Hoopstad we passed through a country as flat
and unbroken as a billiard table to the very horizon ; not a
kopje visible to suggest thoughts of Boers lying in ambush
to pour in unexpected volleys. The few trees were so far
apart that no bodies of men could have found concealment
in them, even a solitary horseman would have been at once
espied. The ground was covered with reedy grasses, growing
in tufts, with soft deep sand between, through which our
carts and horses struggled with more labour than if we had
been crossing a freshly ploughed field ; there was not a stone
in it to jolt our wheek or to throw at a marauding mule ;
ant-hills were few, and only the jackal-holes threatened the
integrity of my buggy wheels.
Ij
11:^
r
I'll
210 REMINISCENCES OF THREE CAMPAIGNS
It was now many days since we had a drop of rain, the cold
was our chief enemy, and that was only at night, but there was
no time to use the thermometer, and it was difficult even to
make any notes in my journal. . , , ^ „ ....
As we progressed, we foraged m the few stray farms withm
sight which had not been deserted, but they were at long
i^ervals, and our endeavours to obtain bread, butter, and
eeas were only moderately successful. One of the farms I
went to was flying a white flag in token ol submission, or
to disarm enmity. Poor folks 1 They need not have feaied.
Our first morning halt was at Wegdraai, in sight of a loop
of the Vaal, where we obtained our first glimpse of the nver,
and beheld on the farther bank the land of Krugerdoni,
which we hoped to conquer. There was a great camel-thorn
tree at our halting-place, the largest I had ^en in the Free
State, as big as a full grown sycamore, and of sunilar outlme.
We there captured a batch of half a dozen prisoners, whom
we marched over to the General's bivouac to be disposed of.
Some of us were about to bathe in the Vaal, but were warned
against doing so, as it was dangerous from the enemy being
so near • in fact a rifle could easily have carried not only to
the river, but from the hostile bank even to the place where
we were having our rest. The soil near the river appeared
to be diamondiferous, being full of rounded pieces of olivine,
agate, and pebble, such as are characteristic of the nver
diamond washings. . ,_ i- f
We were faced once more with the ever-urgent question of
the sick Although we had seemed to have cleared out all
of them at Hoopstad, less than twenty-four hours previously,
there were akeady half a dozen others incapacitated, and the
old question arose as to what was to be done with them.
Some advised their being sent back in bullock-wagons to
Hoopstad, but there was always the possibUity of them,
their wagons, or their escort, being captured, and it was wisely
decided to carry them on with us, as being less dangerous.
Late in the evening we observed great fires at a place in
the Transvaal to the north-east of us ; their nature could only
be conjectured. , . , t ti.„t
On the morning of the 22nd the dew was so heavy that
everything was soaked through, and we had to don our wet
clothing in the chilly morning. We had been crossing a
peninsula of tableland that projected northwards between
the Vet River and a loop of the Vaal, but now we were winding
along the southern bank of the latter at distances of ftom
half a mile to two mUes, and were ascending and descendi^
the undulations that ran at right angles to the nver, caused
SOUTH AFRICAN WAR an
by water filtering from the higher ground ; they were all dry,
and only once did we cross a shallow watercourse. Occasional
glimpses of the river were obtained, but as it here ran between
steep earth banks our view was mostly limited to the masses
of bushy trees that crowned them. On the veld away &om
the river a few fair-sized trees existed, though sparsely as
stragglers or small groups of a dozen or so. Four miles out
from Wegdraai the column began the ascent of a high table-
Iand,perhaps 1000 feet in altitude, and we gradually diverged
from the river ; the top was reached after much labour and
crossed with more, for it was broad and everywhere deep in
soft sand, and there was no visible road. The march was
uneventful except for our finding some mules which had been
shot, a few spent oxen, and wa'^ching one of the Yeomanry
having a long chase after his horse, which had thrown him
and went careering back towards Wedgraai with saddle and
tin utensils rattling under its belly. Presently we got the
guidance of a telegraph wire laid along the ground, by which
the head of the column communicated with the rearguard,
who in their turn reeled it in as they advanced. The coarse
dry grass covering the veld here was relished by our animals,
and we let them graze as much as possible as we went along.
As we had not set out until the light of the morning was
coming in, the riding had been pleasant for a few hours, but
''•.5 way began to seem long as the sun and dust rose higher ;
' *ees or other objects that might have broken the monotony
ihed, and we were all very wearied when at eleven o'clock
vfe came to the descent from the plateau and saw outspread
below a vast expanse of lower plains, brown with withered
grass and varied by only so many trees as one could count
on their fingers and toes. At the farther edge of it, however,
we rejoiced to perceive that the advanced guard had arrived
and were lighting their fires, so we hasten^ to descend and
got to our breakfasts at one o'clock. The place was named
something like Jacobsjourdain, and the Dutch farmer who
owned it came storming out to demand what our people
meant by leaving a lot of cattle, some of them even witk cold*,
on his land ; what was he to do with them ? He got the
soft answer that he ought to collect them, and would receive
» soverdgn for each one, when they were sent for. Truly
the consideration and forbearance of our commanders to the
inhabitants were everywhere something wonderftU.
During that day the number of our sick had risen to ten,
and the uncertainty as to our destination increased the diffi-
culty of knowing how to dispose of them. Our impression
was that we were going to seize one of the fords of the Vaal
I I
'■iU
ii T g g t ! y . f n aj ' a.«>wi i' t
•vt
■ i! ' t
m
aia REMINISCENCES OF THREE CAMPAIGNS
with one of oxir divisions, while the other was to make i dash
for the Kroonstad-Klerksdorp railway and endeavour to
obtain possession of the bridge by which it crossed the Vaal.
We were soon to learn that no such railway existed, ad that
though it was marked on the maps not a sod of it had been
cut. When this fact became known, it turned our thoughts
towards the town of BothaviUe, where we might possibly
aet some kind of accommodation arranged for the mvalids.
On the 28rd of May, after a night rendered sleepless by
mules breaking loose and trampling on us. we contmued
trekking all morning from long before daylight across the
ridges that ran towards the Vaal. It was a hornd desert
vaned oil- by a few rare ant-heaps, tussocks of withered
grass, dead' or dying oxen, and the living skeleton of a horse
of inconceivable thirmess, turned loose from the column as
being unable to move farther. The horiion was a flat circle
under a grey and leaden sky, across the centre of which our
caravan was strung out in a line of insignificant blade and
brown dots ; and it was a thing of joy. an oasis m th<i desert,
when we unexpectedly found o« -selves on the edge of a bea,uti-
ful crater, a mile in diameter, walled round by ndged edges
of limestone clifl, descending ahnost perpendicuUrly to the
flat bottom, evidently a former lake, from the middle of which
a wooded eminence rose like a hill fort from beside three or
four ponds of water. Trees were scattered over the oottom
and fringed the sno.. -white limestone cliffs around, and we
aU hailed with delight this apparition of lovelmess in the
loathsome desert. Descending into it by a gap in the lune-
stone rocks, we unharnessed under a large tree, lit our nres,
had our breakfast, and warmed our chilled bodies and limbs.
The spot deserved the pretty name of Witkraans, or White
Crown, which the Dutch had bestowed upon it.
When breakfast was over and our horses and cattle again
put in, we emerged from Witkraans through another gap in
its white walls, climbed up to a park-like country with tree^
and feeding cattle, thence through a dense jungle of small
trees where one could readUy believe that a herd of elephants
would have harboured a few years before, and had a view ol
the river. But all tc^ soon we came once more mto the homd
bare flats of the morning and continued crossing them unbl
we came upon a large British encampment round a general s
headquarters, nestling cosily in a bend of the Vaal and
commanding the crossing known as Commando s Unit.
Conceiving this to be our destination, we quitted the south-
eastern direction we had been puisuing, and struck out for it,
for we were provided with neither guide nor escort, but nao
SOUTH AFRICAN WAR
313
hardly reached within a mile of it when we received orders
to go on farther, and returned to our former line of march,
towards where Methuen had his camp. The dullness of the
day had ended in rain, but when this ceased and the sun shone
out a little, we found ourselves close to the river, beyond which
lay the treeless Transvaal, with farmhouses widely scattered
over it, peacefully sending up their afternoon smoke into
the stiU heavens, and some fifteen miles away, beyond un-
dulating levels, rose a range of low mountains, not kopjes,
perhaps the southern edge of the High Veld. We could see
the small clouds of dust raised by the mounted Transyaalers
who were watching us ; but no hostilities were initiated,
and we went on our way to Modderspruit, a low deep swamp
marked by a line of trees and a farmhouse on its farther
side where, on a rise three-q'iarters of a mile distant. Lord
Methuen had encamped.
We were not permitted to join him ; General Paget rode
out to meet us, showed us where to outspan just short of the
Mud Ravine (Modder Spruit), which we could not pass till
morning, as several horses had been engulfed in the swamp
when trying to cross it. We bivouacked therefore on the
hither side, and found the place swarming with blesbuck,
which frequented it as their drinking place, and in herds of
half a dozen or more charged up to and almost through our
camp while we were arranging o;ir shelters.
In the early morning before the night had disappeared,
the wagons of stores began to cross the spruit, and it was
picturesque to see them doing so by lantern light ; but not
until daylight did our turn come to follow. We slid down
the steep sides of the muddy gully to where at the bottom the
engineers had constructed a good crossing by laying earth
over branches placed on the slough, which was thirty feet
deep between the banks and fifty broad. After we had
crossed we found we were quite close to the Vaal River,
which looked even beautiful in the morning sunlight, one
to two hundred yards in breadth, its muddy waters flowing
in a gentle current between precipitous mud banks wooded
with spiny trees which, only a few paces away, ceased and gave
place to the naked veld. The trees were mostly weeping
varieties.
When we had proceeded to the rendezvous of the column
and seen it arranged with more care than usual, our march
along the south side of the river was continued over the
tiresome bare expanses, the only interesting feature of which
was that the round ant-heaps, so familiar to us, had dis-
appeared ; a different species of ant bad taken possession of
,i'
h
!;.f
I
;:fl!
314 REMINISCENCES OF THREE CAMPAIGNS
this district, and constructed irregular towers or chimneys,
with hollows as large as one's forearm extending up the centre
and opening at the top. After an easterly march of four and
a half hours we descended to another loop of the Vaal at
Zandfontein, and amid spreading trees that covered a sandy
flat for a stone's-throw from the water, formed a nice bivouac
in which to rest until next morning. A commando of Bocts,
with two guns, was opposite to us on the other bank, but
offered me no molestation when I went down alter luncheon
to photograph the river, which here was large and imposmg
for Africa. This was on the 2«h of May, Queen Victoria s
birthday, and in the evening the major mustered all his men
on parade and called for three cheers for Her Majesty ; we
presently heard the other camps lustily cheering too, and a
little later an issue of rum was made in which each man
could drink the toast of the day.
The ground at Zandfontein was abundantly bestrewn witn
nests of the trap-door spider, with little hinged lids and pearly
linings ; all those we saw were abandoned and empty, the
occupied ones we failed to discover. .
The next, the 2Sth, was the eleventh day of our wanderings
with no news from the outer world, and we hoped that other
eleven would find us in the neighbourhood of Johannesbu^,
on our way to Pretoria ! Leaving Zandfontein in the dark,
we pressed on, but though we used our utmost speed, we dirt
not now lose so many cattle and mules, for, feedmg on the
abundant dry veld grass here, which all the animals loved.
the> could be driven along and used again when restored to
strength. All that day we hugged the south bank of the Vaal,
at first over wooded levels which were not devoid ot beauty
after our experience of the naked veW, and a commando
of twenty Boers with two pom-poms and a Maxun followed
us on the opposite bank, coming once down to the river,
but we took no notice of them, and they on theur part did not
interfere with us. At seven miles from Zandfontein the river
took a sudden bend and was no longer enclosed between
mud banks, but flowed through a rocky wooded gorge of
sandstone, and there at Balkfontein we bivouacked and
breakfasted. Sitting high upon the south bank the nat
Transvaal lay beneath us across the river, and I could easily
have sent a rifle buUet into a large red brick farmhouse upon
the bank. . •]
At midday we continued our progress for more than a miie
Btong the bend of the river, where it had cut a way through
a deep channel among irregular banks, difis, and rodu
fiaitas&cally scattered, foUowed on the other bank by a few
SOUTH AFRICAN WAR
a«5
of the enemy's scoucs watching our movements. At one
time a large cloud of dust came streaming from the north
towards the river, and this was at first taJken for the main
body of the Boers, but proved, as it drew nearer, to be only
a herd of some large antelope, probably haartebeest, a relief
to us, since we had been ordered to go ahead with the advance,
leaving the main body to follow with the convoy of provisions.
Presently we turned away from the river and ascended an
open grassy plain, the left or western bank of the Valseh
River, a tributary of the Vaal. On a low heave of land
across the Valseh we saw the treeless town of Bothaville,
enlivened out of its normal deadness by the camp and cattle
of Lord Methuen which lay scattered around it. Our journey
was now towards the south-east, and after a couple of miles
in that direction we came upon General Paget's ?amp and
expected to settle down there. But no. Our sick were to
be deposited in Bothaville, and we had two more miles of
execrable road, rocky and filled with holes and ruts, before
we came to the foid over the Valseh which proved to be the
worst 'drift' we had yet encountered. And it was even
worse than it looked. Though my pony behaved well, yet
he would at one moment be only knee-deep, and the next
up to his middle, while the cart followed suit and swayed
about, ahnost capsizing. Not only this, but while the descent
to the ford had been wisely guided obliquely down somewhat
parallel to the stream, the ascent went straight up the other
bank and was so wet and slippery that a fall occurred which
damaged the cart, though fortunately the pony himself
escaped injury.
During the day several of the Boers in batches, some ol
them even from the Transvaal, came in and surrendered
their weapons.
XLIII
Bothaville
Since leaving Hoopstad I had been sickening with what
afterwards developed into typhoid fever, inflammation of
the veins and absorbents of the leg set in, so that it was with
difficulty that I could get my boot off and on, and I had become
so weak as to be scarcely able to walk, hftnce my notes became
few and scanty, and indeed many things I hardly remember
as well us I should wish. But the following are my recollec-
tions of the next few days.
Bothaville, which was incorrectly placed on the maps, was
i
,11 -H" J
I :
4>
If '.
I'l,
m
3i6 REMINISCENCE OF THREE CAMPAIGNS
a group of thirty red brick or white plaster houK* with iron
loofa, containing barely over 100 inhabitants, all told.
Methuen was abeady encamped tnere, and on our entry we
were met with the announcement that we had gathered on
the way a great number of sick, who were being established
in an overcrowded small hospital, and thrl. leaving them
there, we were about to resume our nuj- ii, not for the
Transvaal as we had hoped, but for Kroonstad. Time
was precious, for our loss in baggage animals had been
heavy, ISO having died or been left on the veld, and there
were yet many stages to be got ov-ir before Kroonstad
WHS reached. , ,. , . ■ i
We were in great perplexity as to the disposal of our sick,
most of whom were so ill as to be unable to survive a further
journey of several days on the ox-wagons, and would have
to be left in Bothaville at all hazards. For them the prospects
were indeed gloomy ; twenty to thirty pints of milk a day
was the utmost that the little town could furnish, while all
except a few tins of our condensed milk had been exhausted ;
the other stores which invalids would require had been packed
at Boshof with so little method that, even assuming that we
possessed them, no one knew where they were to be found
in the huge army of vans ; moreover, patients with typhoid
could not well survive on tinned beef and biscuits, while all
we could supply of Liebig and similar foods was but a drop
in the bucket of their requirements. Few sheds of any
sort existed in Bothaville. and several of the houses had
to be requisitioned for hospitals, while the church was
the only other avaiUble shelter. There were no beds, nor
from the absence of timber could any be made, so that
many, if not most, would have to sleep on the ground,
a torture to the bones of a sound man, not to mention a
sick one. , . . ,.
Our American field hospital had not been behavmg well,
and was now worse than ever ; the donor himself insisted on
occupying one of its ambulance wagons and its tortoise tent,
though the sick needed them sorely ; it had even dismissed
a patient seriously ill with jaundice, and another suflermg
from a bad phlegmonous foot, on the pretext that their places
were required ; and these men would have had to return to
their regiments and tramp on foot for many miles of sand
in the burning sun. The comments passed on such conduct
were severe as they deserved to be, but our major rose as
usual to meet the situation, ' Send in all your sick to me,'
said he, 'and I shall see that somehow they have vihat
attention is required ; that is what we are here for, and
SOUTH AFRICAN WAR
217
it ahall be done.' It wm a wonder to nwny of us that thii
good officer did not receive mention in despatches or have
the C.B. conferred on him after the war ; but he was not
one who advertised himself or suffered others to do it
for him.
While we were at Bothaville I fell in with a former pupil,
Dr. David Justice, who had settled in practice in the Free
State. He was able to supply some delicacies, such as butter
and tobacco, and otherwise to provide for some of the wants
of the sick. His experiences during the war had been stirring
ones. At its outbreak he bad been commanded to serve 1..
the Boer army, but refusing to fight against his own country,
<va» put in charge of an ambulance, where those under him
were all, or nearly all. Englishmen similarly circumstanced.
Wn^e the Russian, German, French, and Belgian ambulances
that came to serve the Boers were all placed very far back
from the fighting line, he and others such as he were dealt
with otherwise. All good and suitable vehicles, even shoot-
ing wagons, were seized, converted into ambulance cars,
fitted with the very best appliances and instruments, and in
these they were sent to the front for service. While in com-
mand of one of them. Justice was present during the invest-
ment of Ladysmith, witnessed the Spion Kop battle, a brave
charge by the Gordons on a hill held by the Boers, a great
rout and destruction of Boer men and horses, and many
other scenes, his heart rising or sinking as one or other side
was victorious. After seeing the relief of Ladysmith and the
nocturnal withdrawal of the Boers, he served in the Free
State, and was at Sanna's Post and Thaba'nchu. After
Thaba'nchu the Boers fell back so quickly that his ambulance
fell behind and was lost, and as his house at Kaalvallei had
l>een looted he made for Bothaville, one of the several
towns which were included in his extensive practice, but being
warned by the natives that the Transvaal scouts were search-
ing for him, he left and concealed himself until he heard that
the English had arrived. Our leaders were glad to engage
him to assist in the care of the sick who had to be left in
Bothaville, and to supply them with medicines, of which he
possessed a fine stock. I think I was the last friend from
Britain whom Justice saw. He died in Kroonstad on the
8th of January 1901.
I 1
,'
t}S<'
t(
If
I!.
\h
f
318 REMINISCENCES OF THREE CAMPAIGNS
XLIV
BOTHATIIXX TO BLOEMFONTWN
We left BothavUle for Kroonstad on Saturday afternoon the
2eth of May. Edging gradually away eastwaidi from the
Valsch River, we crossed bare grass plains as flat, unbroken,
and unpleasing as those which had preceded, ond after ndiiy
for three hours stayed for the night at an uninteresting spot
called Nieuweiahis Spruit, where my friends, Major C-—,
and Messrs. N , P— , L , andW ;. a« of whom
I have ever since gratefully remembered, assisted me with
my cart and horse. It would not be easy to say which of
them showed me most kindness, each in his diOerent way,
in these later treks, or to name half of what they did for me
in the way of assistance— chair to rest in, and the best of the
food they had, of which they denied themselves for me, day
after day; I could not have held out otherwise.
The roads beyond this were better, but with the usual
want of consideration for the sick, whose numbers increased at
every halt, t; e ambulances and field hospitals were dnven over
the rough veld m a line parallel to the engineer and ammuni-
tion columns, whUe they, to whon. it wouW have mattered
little, went along the good road. Unable to endure this, 1
forced my way into the latter, and kept it as much as possible,
untU we halted after a three hours' journey in which we
covered probably nine miles, in order to water the <»ttle and
horses, and have breakfast, at Van Wieks Vlei, and shortly
continued our course, nearly on the line which ^x'^n
surveyed for the intended Klerksdorp railway, anJ v-.-ently
came to cultivated fields. Hitherto what we had seen ol
cultivation in the Free State had been a. most but a few acres
in extent, but now we beheld hundreds of acres covered with
ripe Kaflr com in fields with many groups of Kafir houMs
and kraals, and through these we rode for well over a mile,
until the Valsch River again came into sight on our right
hand, while a single distant mountain hove its rounded top
over the horizon, telling that we were not at a great distance
from Kroonstad. At midday an attractive group of hne
spreading trees, standing alone by a waterpool m the bottom
of a dip in the ground, enticed us to stop, but those who went
forward to inspect evidently did not approve of it. or it did
not bear out its promise, for we went on tor a few miles more
to another pool at a farm called Roedswal, or otherwise
Sullivan's Fwm. where we descended for the night, having
once mor ift the grass veld and come into Karoo Desert.
SOUTH AFRICAN WAR
ai9
AtUt thii my reooUection* beoune r .ucwbat conftucd,
but from some pencil jotttniii made •■ we went along I make
out that we efterwardi dragged ouneive* over all kindi of
unieen otetades so bad as to smash my cart, which however
I contrived to mend. We had got into the habit of the different
units setting out at different times and arriving at different
halting-places, which was much against the comfort of the sick.
Our own field hospital was now provided with mule transport,
and headed the oohucii behind the advanced guard, con-
sequently we were up before daylight, and got on without
interruption, arriving first at the halting-places, and even
travelling in the middle of the day ; but the ox-wagons, which
had now, in spite of our having cleared out at Bothaville all
the invaUds, again accumulated forty -six sick, could not move
in the heat of the day, having to outspan early, come on in
the evening or night hours, and arrive whenever their slow
p»ce might permit. There was no one to provide these
sufferers with food, the want of which for such long perijds
added much to their distress, until the major organised a
service of cooks carrying suitable food, and cooking it on the
way, to accompany the sick convoy.
Our last halting-place was at Doomspruit, and on the way
to it there was a good road which our sick men's conveyances
could quite well have taken. But no I Their orders were to
go straight across the intervening rough ground, and away
went the ambulance and other wagons, wit" whips cracking,
men racing, and beasts running, till one a. >d almost hear
the bumps of the hips, elbows, and skulls of the sick against
the sides and bottoms of the carts. It was reckless work,
as we crossed the dips and rises of the plain along the north
bonk of the Valsch River, which contained nasty crossings
or equally formidable sluit .
At Doomspruit we had another illustration of the careless
system on which cur camps were selected. We reached a
fine plain of rich grass land without a rut on it to jolt us, and
there we expected to stop, but we had to deviate to the left
across wheel-wrenching ruts two feet deep and settle on ground
eaten bare, trodden down and badly soiled by the horses of
the first column. It was really too bad.
I believe we passed the Lace Diamond Mines on our left
that day.
When we awoke on the 2»th it was freezing, and my
bedding and patrol tent were stiff, and while the others went
on N and I remained behind thera to raise a blaze at one
of the cooking fires, warm ourselves, aitd thaw our belongings
until the sun rose. We found our way to the road, where we
I !:!
lis
if
It. ,11
'li'r'f
320 REMIMISCENCES OF THREE CAMPAIGNS
came on • wagon loaded with Boer priioneni under guard,
with a Cape cart tied behind it in which wai leated a man
caUed Greilin ; he was suid to be a Boer who had surrendered,
given up his armi, and •.igned a promise of allegiance, only to
be captured a few days later in charge of a party operatmg
''More'witche. of cultivation appeared as we approached
Kroonstad, which we found to be a vilUge surroundwl by
low hilli with sloping sides, and two prominent objects in it,
namely, a disproportionally Urge churrb and a railway tram
steaming awny southwards.
We brought in our contingent of sick, now increased to
sixty or thereby, and found Kroonstod aUready groaning
under hospitals in two churches, an officers' hospital in the
hotel, and a canvas field hospital, all of them full. And no
provisions. Milk, eggs, bread, vegetables, beef, nmtton, and
so forth, had been swept clean awuy by the Boers, whose
armies had been there before us. so that there were only tmned
foods and biscuits for the sick and sound. Every article
■eemed to have gone ; not a pound of flour, or a box of matches,
or a pinch of tobacco, existed in the place. I saw one man
who had succeeded in making a purchase, but that was of the
last pair of drawers, as I learned both from hun and the dis-
appointed man who came after him in the hope of buying
something useful. , , ^ , ,.1. i-
The reports we heard at Kroonstad were that down the line
at Brandfort they had many sick, and that at Bloenifontein
there were 4000, who were dying at the rate of eighteen to
twenty a day ; that many of the officers of the K.A.M.L.
were down with typhoid fever, and that my friend Major
Perry Marsh, who had been so friendly when I v-.itn, '.is
hospital at De Aar. was dead ; he was a man whom the service
could ill spare, one of the cream of the R.A.M.C. It was not
a cheerful welcome to Kroonstad.
Up to that time I had been keeping partially fit, by means of
Dover's powder, bismuth, chlorodyne. and an array of other
astringents, but in spite of all was growing so weak that I
could do little but lie exhausted on the ground after our
inarches ; my leg would no longer come out of its boot ; and
I was perhaps not quite clear in the head. Therefore I decided
to follo-v the good advice of my friends and try to go down
to Cape Town, or. if I faUed in that, to go to some military
hospital on the line. I was favoured with a compartment
in a hospital train which was going part of the way ; said
fMCweU to my good comrades, and was carted ova to the
station in an ambulance wagon and deposited under Dr. K— s
SOUTH AFRICAN WAR »ai
CMC, amon; a goodly proceMion of other incapables ; wa»
laid down among rug« Hid dieted, believing that I had only
to lie quiet and get well ; for we did not know that my diseane
wai typhoid, and where «> muiiy were more seriously ill on
the marches, I had declined to be pronounced an invalid or
to have anything to do with clinical thermometers.
The train puffed away from Kroonstad late in the evening
of the 80th of May, and I remember little of the journey
beyond photographing my old friend the Modder River
where the railway crossed it at Glen, until I went to take a
sponge down, when I beheld in the mirror the vision of it
gaunt man, whose long hair, eyebrows, and moustache hung
over a face that seemed to be the siie of a child's, and whose
great limbs showed only bones and coils of wasted muscles,
reminiscent of the horses we had left to their fkte on the veW,
and the shock first suggested to me that I was seriously ill.
When we came to Bloemfontein, there stood in the stati»n
a carriage of a train which was to leave next morning for Cape
Town, and I crept into it, dragged in my belonging*, and went
fast asleep. There 1 spent the day, still in the hope of being
able to start next morning for Cape Town.
But it was to be otherwise. A bad night convinced me
that there was no chance of my getting farther, and I sent a
note to Captain S , the railway transport ofRcer, to tell
that I was Ul ; he got Major T to see me, who arranged
with Colonel E to have me sent to a military hospital.
Presently an ambulance was procured and I was carted
through the streets of Bloemfontein, of which I saw nothing
beyond that known faces, of those who had heard of my plight,
now and then came and looked into the rear of the wagon
with a friendly word or nod. My destination was the Upper
Dames Institute, which had been requisitioned as a hospital,
and there gentle hands lifted me out, stripped me like a child,
and put me to bed, with orders that I was to be kept re-
cumbent, be fed on milk, and have suitable medicines.
XLV
Bloemfontein
The recollections of the days that followed my admission
to the hospital in Bloemfontein were somewhat confused,
but my habit of making notes whenever I was able, enables
me to recall some details regarding them.
I believe that unless there be such complications as per-
foration of the intestines, the death from typhoid is not an
(
! 'I
333 REMINISCENCES OF THREE CAMPAIGNS
unpleasant one for the patient, however appalMng it may
apLar to an onlooker. In my delirium n^ht ^d day made
httledifierence to me. In the four-bedded ward where they
first placed me I lay, as it seemed, in » pons**"* ?*"P°''7'^'*
excluded the existence of any hopes or fears. Mmd and body
seemed to be dual, and to some extent separate. I was con-
scious of the body as an inert tumbled mass near a door ; it
belonsed to me, but it was not /. I was conscious that my
mentll self used regularly to leave the body, always carrying
something soft and black, I did not know what, m my left
hand---tiSit was invariable— and wander away from it under
orey. sunless, moonless, and starless skies, ever onwards to
I distant gleam on the horizon, solitary but not unhappy,
and seeing other dark shades gliding silently by, until some-
thing prcSuced a consciousness that the chiUy mass, which
I then recalled was my body, was beii^ stirred ^ it Uy by
the door. I was then drawn rapidly back to it, jomed it
with disgust, and it became /, and was fed, spoken to. and
cared fM. When it was again left I seemed to wander oB
as before by the side of a sUent, dark, slowly-njwmg great
flood through silent fields of asphodel, knowmg neither
light nor darkness, and though I knew that death was hoven^
about, having no thought of religion nor dread of the end,
and roamed on beneath the murky skies apathetic and con-
tented, until something again disturbed the body jhere >t
lav when I was drawn back to it afresh, and entered it with
eveV-growmg repulsion. As the days went on, or rather I
shouW say as time passed, all I knew of my sickness was
that the wanderings through the dun .f P^f • fi'l"** ,^^"*
more continual and more distant, until about the end of the
term of high fever I was summoned back to the huddled mass
with intense loathing, and as I drew near and heard some one
sav ' He will live,' I remember finding the mass less cold and
clammy, and ever after that the wanderings appeared to be
fewer and shorter, the thing lying at the door and /
grew more together, and ceased to be separated into two
entities. ii. i.
In mv wanderings there was a strange consciousness that
T could see through the walls of the building, though I was
aware that they were there, and that everythmg was trans-
parent to my senses. 1 saw plainly, for mstenee, a poor
RA M C surgeon, of whose existence I had not known, and
who" WM in quite another part of the hospital, grow very lU
and scream and die ; I saw them cover his corpse and canry
him sofUy out on shoeless feet, quietly and surreptitiously.
left we should know that he had died, and the next night—
SOUTH AFRICAN WAR
aa3
I thought — ^take him away to the cemetery. Afterwards,
when I toW these happenings to the sisters, they informed me
that all this had happened just as I had fancied. But the
name of the poor fellow I never knew.
Towards the middle" of June, or possibly somewhat earlier,
before I was well conscious, there was a consultation, and one
eklerly doctor shook his head and said, so that I could hear it,
' He is nearly sixty, he won't recover.' Another said, ' He
will get better,' and it confusedly amused me, for I knew
pCTfectly that I should get well. After this I was taken to
another ward, where 1 hi^ only one companion, to convalesce.
The goodness of the R.A.M.C. medical men and the sisters was
simply unsurpassable. I name here no names, but they will
ever be in my memory.
It may seem unkind and ungrateful, after all the care and
attention I received, to say anything in criticism of the
hospital, but I do so only as a part of my intention to state
the complete truth of what I saw of the condition of the
army medical department in those days. My criticisms
refer mostly to the men of the R.A.M.C., and not to the
officers, and in the Dames Institute Hospital I, as a
patient, had unparalleled opportunities of forming correct
conclusions.
The orderlies there were destitute of such training as they
should have had to fill the posts they occupied. They had
been taught stretcher drill, bandaging, and perhaps first aid,
but they were unacquainted with and unpractised in the
more common and important manipulations for the manage-
ment of the sick. They knew next to nothing about the ordin-
ary instruments in use in the wards, and the sick suffered in
consequence. They had no proper supply of disinfectants,
no thorough means of using them had they possessed them,
no Eound and intelligent idea of what ought to have been done
with them, or of the purification of appliance- hands, etc.,
the result being that no disinfection was really carried out.
That hospital was one of the best managed I saw in South
Africa, yet in it disinfection was neither understood nor
practised in any way that, however faintly, resembled effi-
ciency. Although it was capable of accommodating, and usually
actually held, over fifty patients, the only means the ward
oiderlies had of disinfecting themselves and their hands was
a single small enamelled hand-basin containing creoline and
water, placed on the ground in the middle of the verandah,
where they might or might not use it as they pleased. In
sweeping out the wards, which were saturated with the enteric
poison, a bru^ and tea-leaves were alone empk>yed, the dust
\m
I '.
aa4 REMINISCENCES OF THREE CAMPAIGNS
wised by the brushes wa. blown about everywhere, ^ the
«reeDin« were flnaUy thrown out in the gajden near Uie
SS£ XdiSrf^nt was usrf to the Aoo" or oUier
p^ of the wards. No system of dismfectuig the bod^ of
S^atients was practised. When a patient sP«c>aUy "sked
for it. a mackintosh sheet under the waist was us^ to keep
the W dry while the body was being sponged, but this was
3ble unless the patient possessed some, which must have
?I^n?«re event indeed. The result was that on leaving the
hTroitol the patient., still covered with entenc poison and
KdisinfectS clothing, were put into the t~'»r-'*™«"
ht a hospital train, but was quite as often an ordinary mail
StSi Ssaloon c^rriage^-and sent down «=<"^"t^. PJ!?",^
^compartments and disseminating the virus until th^
l^J^ ^Thospital, hotel, private house or oaierqv«rt«s
T^ere they might or might not obtam baths m which to
P'^e^X'^get about a little 1 hired a carxUge and
went to visit Allan Johnston's B~ve, and m doin^ so
obtained the only views of Bloemfontem and itsviomty
wUch I ever had. The foUcwing were the impressions I
" ti'Sig to the south-west from the town to the cemetery,
one s£w that they lay in a basin among the hills. It wm an
awful-looking basin 1 A horizontal wavy plain of two or
tC mitesleross, of bare deep earth whidi when dry was
sand but now everywhere mud up to mid-leg. Upon the
slight elevations were the various Bntash encampments,^d
S^ond them on the west the low hJU over which General
F^nch approached when he captured the town and. '>y
defeyinK to shell the opposite edge, miss^ capturmg Ohm
pluf&uger himself i sS at least I was toW, The basm wa.
a repulsive place as 1 saw it, sterile, forbiddmg. as if intended
by K for a monstrous ashpit 'BloemfonW means
• Well of Flowers.' The name shocked one, asif it had been
cSd in horrible derision. 'Hollow of Death" woiJd
S^ve better fitted this saucer of mud and sand The towa
Uv on a slight rise towards the eastern side, but too shght to
Kmosl of it out of the mud. and between it and the homd
pkS lay the cemetery, the usual Duteh 'f^^fl^l"^^
and tr^s, enclosed in ruinous stone walls and prosperous
a^ hSges But. alas 1 So plentiful of late had been the
SSnTtf for its ;helter that it 1^ been enlarged by the
^tion of fifty acres of a slope that nm up southwards to
w^ stood the old-fashioned looking fortress erected, but
SOUTH AFRICAN WAR
MS
never defended, by the Free Staters. Entering through a
dilapidated turnstile and a tottering gate, I was faced by an
expanse of recently turned, absolutely bare earth covering
a low swell of the ground, where the spade had been recently
so busy that one's first impression was that of looking on a
surface mine where prospectors had been throwing up mounds
and forming pits in the search for gold. Only here the
mounds were regular, lay in squares, row behind row, with
walks between the squares, and the heart sickened to see this
garden of the dead, planted with the bodies of British heroes.
Here was a square of the Guards, there one of another regiment ;
here lay a parterre of Roman Catholics, there a bed of Non-
conformists; and in the nearest comer of the last was the
oblong heap of mould which covered the ashes of poor Allan
Johnston. There were rows upon rows, and squares upon
squares of such moimds, all of them recent, and without a
blade of grass or a single leaf to cover the gaunt stony gravel.
Perhaps a little tombstone or a wooden cross, a stray in the
waste, was put up by some comrade or friend to rescue the
remains underneath from -oblivion ; here and there a withered
flower was laid, or a little firitish flag of the size of one's palm
had been stuck into the soil by some one who had nothing
else to give, and whose heart was perhaps too full to be aware
of anything incongruous in his ofiering of a doll's flag. It
was only with dim eyes and constricted throat that one
could look round this plantation of brave men in that foreign
' Acre of God.'
When returning from the cemetery I obtained a view of
Bloemfontein from its western side, as also of the eastern lip
of the hollow in which it lay. From this direction it was not
so unattractive. The heights behind it were well shaped,
and even handsome, and were dotted with the fortifications
which our armies had placed there, our tents, and our signal-
ling stations, so that where it lay on the feet of the hills on the
eastern side of the saucer of bare ground, Bloemfontein had
even some claim to be called picturesque. It had many
buildings, public and private, which were architecturally
striking as their fafades and roofs emerged from a sea of trees
which the Dutch had wisely planted thickly within the town ;
while the slight rise of the ground and the hilly outlines
behind removed the impression of flatness it would otherwise
have produced, and conferred on it a rich and leafy appeurunce,
as seen from this side.
J;
; ;.!l
il
i/.
m.
226
REMINISCENCES OF THREE CAMPAIGNS
XLVI
BWJBMFONTBIN TO CaPE ToWN
XntL^ f^raU rm:Hcal sta« of the hospital and many
glimpse of the «>uthem part of the Or^^S^^ ^«J '^^,^
across our route. l^Mo g ^^ j, i^^ follows
msmuated itsell, iwistuiB »» = militery hospital
and came to Spnngfontem "o^ ja^st mu tary ^^^.^^^
with rows o" ~;'f. f ,S b3 Spri^gfontein. as we
and ""-^^nt ^*" '*$^";. we found oursllves in a most
ffit'^u^^jratt^nort^^^^^^^
■'t^'nameCd t^t fa-^sl^ the wTwhere the Jway
j^e ^vi^?^li -r rLfpStt^u^wS
borrowed from rt a g°W«'^*^?\ tte rive? though a m««/
gorge severa ^^ J°,»8 Jalf the bottom the sL.m roU«i
of pyramidal mountams. ana ai ae__™ted bv rocky islets,
^W twchn^g^"erXdgfwhU h/d been
high above "men imi u " i-d bv our engmeers so as
blown up by the ^"^l 'X we were uporthe bridge
new in the west, wu"c stream was spanned by a
the waters were grey ard dull *e stream wa^^ ^^^
white curving t^.^^'S^^;Vu^ during the restora-
the t«-?Pp«'^.^"ttSeTu^ or five hundred feet above
tion of «*e.^°f*y f Se the railway seemed to lose itself
^ S:^nA^tvas^^rts.a^o,^ which we slunk like pigmies
'" " 'tSTfeet of the Tokening hills until, after a few miles,
SOUTH AFRICAN WAR aaj
wh«e I transferred myself into a berth in a sleepino car that
went through to Cape Town. '•"^ping car tnat
.1,^^ ^ had the good fortune to find as a fellow-traveller
sWmg my cubicle one of the best and kindest comj^IIonJ
with whom I ever trave led. Colonel L of fhrrit,.!?
It. where my bearer company was attached to his regiment
and who was on his way down to Cape Town to ^S^
S^Llf ^1 i*^" wounded. From what I gatherj fr^
himself, and learned more fully from others, he had b^^
with General Bundle m the east of the Orenge Free Statr3
S^^J^ "^ "^^ ^?T ^''«°e «t Senekal!^'^ S'e^
^.^ o^af-on of his being wounded, hiTmen had b^fn
ordered to attack a hUl whence artillery and rifle fire was
telhng heavily on our troops, and they were adv^nclL
agamst it m open formation and in a first and sSS
as was usua Bundle having sent for him^ thTcolond
howe Md rode over to the General, from whom he receiv«l
mrtructions to <Aange the direction of his att^^k, asSm
was too strongly held to be taken. On returning to theGuIiSs
fr^m';h?ir^r"?''",%''*'^/" ^'^^^ twelve hunSreSTarf;
from the hill. Colonel L found he would have to chance
the disposition and alter the second line, and i^e dow^ rt
gmng his orders, being of course pelted by voUeys fCTthe
S°en'.""tf "V*'" ^\ ^'^^ "1™'^* completJSTsSnge!
ments when he was shot through the lower part of his bodv
but continued to ride on and finished the work, after S
^^^ timse f from his horse, and while doing so wasS
wounded, this time m the hand. Even then, while IvinfS
such cover as existed, he was still a mark for the Svs
sharpshooters, one of whom put a buUet through hirTde
and a non-commissioned officer, when placing an arm round
him and endeavouring to assist him, had his ffreann^n
m pieces by a ball and was compelled to desis^T vdd fire
came down as he was lying there, and he and his woundS^m^
M to rush or be dragged through it. They lay unHl the
R.er firing had been somewhat suppressed, after wS one
to ™^'r°* «P""=""^ " "*«*<*" and pressed to be allowS
to carry him off, a proposal which he refused till the othLw
had been removed, and he was assured that he was the mort
«nously wounded man remaining, aft^r which he subS
to be earned off and attended to. """uiiea
his left thigh still full of masses of extravasated blood, insisted
I j;
ii
„8 REMINISCENCES OF THREE CAMPAIGNS
'"J'^'J^W oSTrown early in the morning of Friday the
ing spring awakening °» ^^e bdt °fj°^ g^ j^ „f t^e
station.
XLVII
RxTUSN TO England
t™ r«* of mv experiences in South AfHca were hardly
^„e^ wit^thfC^. «d cWefly possess a merely
P* w«' Srf by Sir William and Lady S into their
Jt TS^l^SSce of B House, where I was spoiled by
^K^^^I LSr^dom before received, met many
"jffrS^^"nuX of the most prominent personahties
^tKto^as we^ « distinguished individual, connected
^^tS^^v^ent and t^war. whUe it wa^ only my
r«kn^ tC obliged me to decline many profiered visrts
'"Sn^TS^J^df iTr^fomed of the widespread dis^tis-
. 5r HlfStm «drt^ with the attitude of the army medical
?£S^ was uiSwe to verify *..e »tatementsjrtth«^
i^^ to be overwhehning evidence that there had been no
SOUTH AFRICAN WAR 3^9
SdT'Am.^tej?'?',."^' ^ the-«dmittedly over-
t^Uv .^ Jn ' "^°"'' f?' '^ **«" committed of systenS^
tS7~^ ?* and excludmg those who were burning to«?ee
uWwm^. »nd directmg it into p»per channels. It wS
^k^S u^"^** !«>»*«"*. to find the British War Ott^.
Z^i^ ?S ^^"^ '^ *"* questions, dragging alono.^S
b<tod other countries, obstinate. ignorMlrnL»w°Si^.S?
jeM^oompIaoent, and strangled in al^ent pi^^Z^'
AJtted Milner at Government House, yet I received from hi,!,
a kmd greeting through his aide-de-4mp, wTth memTes^f
sympatty for my iUness and wishes for myTpeedy ^*vU
and. a thmg Ihighly valued, his thanks for my d^c^e
out and worked to serve the sick and wounded. '
!.
]'
M
MV
II i
ff
' . M
I .1
Sjr.tlmiAll^,S7iln^t»Hm.mCl
PART THIRD
SERBIA
J ' I
.1
XLVUI
FmoM Emoland to Bblobadb
Whbn the Great War broke out in August 1»14. I offered
mvicK to the Brmy medical department of the War Office, to
serve anywhere and in any capacity, but beyond a courteous
reply nothing came of it. I have no doubt that my age was
the factor which excluded me.
1 then volunteered to serve in the Southall Auxiliary MUitary
HospiUl, and acted as the operating surgeon there during
the winter of 191*-15, when I was asked to go to Belgrade in
chaige of a hospital detachment for the British Naval Force
on the Danube. ^ ^l ,. ..■ i.
A number of other medical units went out at that time to
assist the Serbians, and some half a doien of them, along with
mine, were crowded on board the S.S. Saiduh, a small but
clean little steamer from the Khedivial Postal Service. At
that period, lHarch 1918, as a notorious submanne German
boat, the ' U-28,' was ravaginp ".f shipping on the south
coast of England, boaU • ■'•' • -'t c sUy obUinable, neither
were stewards and pro' ■ :on.s, and ur fortnight's voyage
direct to Salonika, our* H,th'mR!.,{o<<l of ite kind, ran woe-
fully short, whUe as s; . '•- » . '"'i 'nly a few capable
hands and a parcel of negroes. Th« vc.v.»ge was by no means
an ideal one. .
After leaving the Mersey, a tmg »«• "» expected
convoying war-vessel which u -er arrived, we eventually
steamed down the eastern coast of Ireland weU out of the
supposed track of the hostUe submarine, and struck directly
for Cape Finisterre in Spain.
UntU we entered the Mediterranean, our intereste were
limited to getting riu . ja-sickness and seeing Cape Samt
Vincent, the Pillars of Hercules, and Gibraltar. We did not
touch at Gib, but were met there by a naval launch and re-
ceived oideri as to the rest of the voyage.
tn
'Id
m
232 REMINISCENCES OF THREE CAMPAIGNS
We obtained only distant views of Algeria, Tunis, and
Sicily, and passed Cape Matapan in the night, but we enjoyed
a lovely sail among the Greek Islands, along the coast of
Euboea, saw for the first time the truncated snow-dad
summit of Mount Ossa and the white-pointed top of Pelion,
appreciating how naturally the legend had arisen that the
former had been piled on the top of the latter by the primeval
race of giant Centaurs in their eflorts to storm heaven. We
barely glimpsed the top of Mount Athos over the intervening
land on our right, came in sight of Mount Olympus and the
town of Salonika, and anchored opposite to it in the bay.
The coast of Thessaly was grand, but stem and gloomy even
in the bright sunshine, and after seeing it one seemed better
to understand the gloom of the Greek tragedies, and inhale
something of the spirit of Sophocles.
As we looked at Salonika ftom the ship— this was before the
great fire — we beheld spread out, fhjm the foot of a high,
bare, pointed range of hills, several miles of plain, sloping
southwards to the sea, on the margin of which lay the city,
a shut-in, walled town of mean houses crowded together and
pierced by the many long white candles of snowy minarets,
each with its extinguisher-like top ; while along its quays,
and out by the shore to the east, groves of trees broke the
monotony and embowered the pretty suburb that extended
coastwise along the sea. Tramways ran along the shore,
and hundreds of small quaint antique-looking boats and ships
lay by the quays or were anchored in the roadstead, while the
ugly black mass of an occasional modem steamer seemed as
much out of place in such surroundings as to suggest the
simile of a coalheaver in the dress circle of a theatre.
It demanded some courage on the part of nervous pasengers
to go ashore from the steamer in one of the swarms of s»Tall
boats that crowded round and struggled for fares, for the
boatmen fought violently for them ; he — or preferably she-
was seized, torn about, shouted at in a terrifying fashion,
and puUed from boat to boat in the agitated waters, till the
only possible issue seemed to be getting rent in pieces.
We left the Saidieh, which was, I believe, torpedoed on her
next voyage, and obtained quarters in the ' Olympos Hotel,'
afterwards destroyed in the great fire. Our voyage had
lasted for a fortnight, and we landed on the 15th of April.
It will presently be seen that, from causes which I shall
indicate, it was not my fortune to see almost anything of the
campaign which was proceeding in Serbia, and that most of
what I witnessed was connected with the medical arrangements
of the Serbian armies, but an account of tliese, interspersed
SERBIA 333
!ritt^^^. nusjionaiy. whose station and fenn we vbttrf
I iS *t, ^^J""^ April, therefore, my comrade Dr.D «,d
to DwSvi InH K ^^^ ^^"^ '""* *=^*«d the bom^dary
iii
!■:!
^ 1
W
434 REMINISCENCES OF THREE CAMPAIGNS
freshly turned graves and white crosses beside the station
told of the losses stistained in repelling it.
After we had passed thiougb the mountains massed along
the frontier, our course along the river was a level one, the
Vardar winding and swirling among meadows of cultivation,
prominent among which were large fields of white poppies
cultivated for opium. It was late in the afternoon when the
fields again gave way to moimtains, and the river was once
more crushed into rocky gorges, and broken up by sharp teeth
and pyramids of stone, and over the river, appearing from the
railway like a cluster of swallows' nests, were the brown,
irregular, arched-windowed houses of Keupreuli (or Veles),
piled one above another in the ledges of the rocks high up to
the sky-line. Then night fell, and on this occasion we did not
see as we passed them anything of the beauties of Uskub,
the old Serbian capital, or Skoplye as the Serbs prefer to call
it. It was morning, and daylight, when we awoke to find
that we were running into Nisch, the temporary capital,
where we struck the line of the Orient Railway.
It was a memorable welcome which we, as members of
the ' Blission Anglaise,' received from the Serbians at Nisch.
We had intended to pile our baggage in the station and go off
to some hotel to pass the time until the evening in: in for
Belgrade was due, but consuls came and greetoJ us, and
left interpreters ; mighty men with vmiforms and sp'.ciidid
decorations, even members of the Serbian Government,
ahnost took us in their arms and refused to let us look after
our luggage ! we must go and be refreshed. A special room was
provided for us in the town, and another in the hospital with
sterilised beds where we might take our siesta ; we were taken
to call on the British Minister, Mr. de G , and carriages
were put at our disposal if we had even to go across the muddy
roads. We could hardly wash off the dust aiid brush our hair
for kind people coming in eager to do anything for us.
It was particularly interesting, at that time, to visit Nisch,
for a prominent Englishman had been creating great excite-
ment by writing to the British newspapers that typhus fever
was so rampant there that the inhabitants were dying of it
in the streets, and that there were not sufftcient persons left
to bury the dead ; he called the city a ' Valley of the Shadow
of Death.' We found it indeed true that after the then
recent disastrous retreat of the Austrians before the victorious
Serbians, a large number of the captured Austrians, who had
been scourged by typhus, had been interned in northern
Serbia, and particularly in Nisch, and that from them the
disease had spread among the peasantry and citizens. But
SERBIA
235
the infonnation we obtoined &om the highest medical
auftonbes showed that the statements regarfL the dS
sittT.^ ^V' *'=5'«^"" ^ never exceeded forty, fifty,
A^L^J^""^^^ " ^7' ?"•' ^^'^ ""«»'«" includ^ed the
th^ An!^^ wounds and other diseases, and embraced both
the Austmn and Serbian sick and wounded. We wen
informed that althe other tales of the ravageTof dLrS
Serbia were equally exaggerated "isease m
bv^r* Rii^*v™> '*?' "^^ ^"^'^^ •««^'*»' P«»ided over
«hlv ;.^ A^^J^^'^ ''* '"«" «<*i^ed most hospit-
dkSrl. 1™'"'^''^"*^ ""^ *°'^ """J "»« suiToundUig
fh-w' ^^'~™«^ » » short time a great deal about ^
that was gomg on, and the impression produced on us was a
treated J one of them was sent to wait upon us, and moved
about m perfect freedom. In the mess-^m ^here we sS
n^n^ai'^'^L*^"''''' '^' ^''""" Medical StaS, tterwe«
SSTwlt /rf'",'"'8*?'°' " P"«""^' "°t even on his parol"
who was voluntarily acting as assistant surgeon: another a
Eto^mian. was on the same footing, a fugitive ^m AusSan
Serbia, now an officer m the Serbian army* two Russian ladies
acting j» ward sisters, and several Austrian prisoners of ™Z
aU of thm m concord and good fellowship. To ourselve^
the hospitahty was more than generous ; we had toSS
from swallowmg much strong, sweet, rich Serbian red ^e
as well as more than one glass of cog^c. '
lefflW ^^ ^'^ ^^^^ surrounding Nisch-for we had
^Ix^ rXw ^"""l ''t Usfaib-the broad Morava River
coursed northwards to the Danube among fertile vaUevs
oS?e?l"^ Z^^lt'T' °^ "^'"y- "PPle' pear pU? a^
n^fL*"'*.*"*'^ ** '°^ ^^ ^e'e covered with beech and
the^uvf^r- ^°"^u *T'"^ " ^^ »"'"'■<='«> mount^Si!
Il^nffl ^"*' "**'" '^•*'*°* mountains enclosed us, and
along the water-courses numerous marshes gave joy to cohorts
of frogs, whose noisy rejoicings were «, l!ud is to r^sou^
of?he fZ"^ °*^" °°"I' r"^"y ^^^8 even the s^^d
of the tram as we passed through them.
tu J„ Peasanfy wereall soldiers, but few had proper uniforms •
mo^ rJT '^•^*'"«"'»H^le ™ly by their rifles, and we«™he
most picturesque set of men whom one could see off the stage!
^^S^ ^tr'-TK'*''. ^'"=^"'^ '"''' ""'•cental wo^ten
?«^^' "»?°'''"8 the 'samplers' our ancestresses used
J^nf ^'>ST°« "P J° *« "*^'1'« °* '•'e leg, with , piei of
hide doubled over the foot for a shoe. The women wew
!'!:.
1
■ I ' ^
836 REMINISCENCES OF THREE CAMPAIGNS
span in buiW, active, hardy, fit to be the mothers of a brave
race of mountaineers. The country and people could hardly
fail to remind a Scot of the highland distncts of his own land.
All was wild nature with a little agriculture, though there
were a few, a very few, factories about Nisch, remarkable
chiefly for their ornamental architecture, despite the inevit-
able ugly tall chimneys.
(i!ift
iM
XLIX
Beujkaoe
Between the Greek frontier and Nisch, in what I suppose
one may call Serbian Macedonia, the only language m which
any of us could communicate with the Serbians, exceptmg
with the few who spoke English, was French, but at and
beyond Nisch, German was the most useful tongue.
In the Macedonian district the railway we bad come by,
the only line of communication from Serbia to the sea, a
soldier or two at intervals along the rails, or guarding the
culverts and bridges, were the solitary signs of the war whit^
was going on, but on the Orient Line, between Nisch and
Belgrade, the whole country was covered with the appurtm-
ances of war. In every carriage of the train sat an armed
guard of sokiiers, and tlie line wound its way, after leaving
the Morava River, through a nuurvellous series of cuttmgs,
tunnels, embankments, over and through ranges of wild hiUs
and valleys, where every suitable spot of ground was occupied
by camp after camp of cavalry, commissariat, infantry, and
artillery, and where the hamlets, houses, and people were
more Oriental in appearance, the dwellings being Jmost^l
provided in their lower stories with arched colonnaded
■ k>ggias,' minute and picturesque.
At the station of Radoviti, three miles ftom Belgrade,
the passengers had to descend, the baggage going on to the
next stopping-place Topscheider, somewhat nearer to the
city. Thence we were conveyed by motor car over the
roughest of roads, to present ourselves to Admiral T ,
and thence to the building destined to be our hospital.
I had never previously been in Belgrade, and was impressed
by it. At the point where the Danube, coming fcom the
west, out of the vast Hungarian levels, is joined ftom the
south by the Save, also flowing through similar flats, thsrt
heaves itself up at the eastern comer of their junction, in
the embrace of the two rivers as it were, a mountain on
which stands Belgrade, k)oking proudly down on the flooded
SERBIA ,37
SZ^Jl**-** '•!*' " "" ^ ""^ '*• There the Anglo-
French contingent weie sweeping away the enemy's miies
and opposite them, on the flooded Hungarian baXweTthe
Austrum arni.«>. Tothe west Belgrad? overhung the lave!
spanned it. over which the Orient Railway had run and the
bw town of Semlin in the enemy's hands just^^i^s the
S';he^' ?r"*' ^»'*i- '"'^ Serbian ^battS^U™
upon the heights around and above Belgrade, where they
could reply to the enemy's guns, but on neither side were thev
of heavy calibre, and there had been a sort of tnia kep^
between the two artiUensts, so that for a fortnight there h^
been no bombardment of the city.
rfpS^^'..'"°*""jl."-,f?°^ """y ™^«d '>°"ses, partly
fol^^ w'?^^/""* buildings, and some of the sticisS^
torn up by theformer cannonades, but on the whole the city
^ ^^ > ^ *" T^^ "" "^^ ^""^ "^n anticipated,
nor had it been much damaged by the occupation by the
Austnans before they had been driven out by the lat^ ^bU^
successes. Apart even from its situation, the city waH fl^
one : several modem streets had been formed in its best
quarters, Uid out with broad pavements, carriage-waTs
nm-aiid beautified by gardens and fountains. The
5^^*f IT """''"et-ng tteir maricets as usual, arrayed
m wonderfully elaborately worked garments, but thereW^re
no women of the better classes to be seen, and the men
with exception of the officers, of whom we s^w ma^y in the
restaurants, were of the middle class, rough, goS sOTt of
feUows. friendly and helpful to us in our ^|l« wrtho^
rudimentary Serbian, but unshaven, rudely clSh^ liS
Srthi^m" *' "*"*"* '" *•" *°"' ^ °' *°"«* »nd
There were many really fine buUdings, indicative of pro-
cess on modem hnes, and one of these, the Third Belimde
hoq)ital. Outwardly it had the appearance of a palace
^^Zj^"^t "^ "* ""^T"' P^* *"e simply splendid. It
tJ^°^1?V"^" ^^^^ of several acres, and was entered ftt>m
the street by a stairway of steps of noble width, flanked by
sides of pohshed granite of a bluish-giey colour. A hand^
some doorway opened on a vestibule lined with coloured
en^ustic tiles, which was occupied by a stair aseendin«
S^^t'ilt.'^KP''^ °' blue Wnite! giving a.^^rS
h^ haU from whose centre rose a great medial stair giving
off corridors to the frontage and wings, ite sides of pouZd
I ':
» ' IB
.r
bi '^
238 REMINISCENCES OF THREE CAMPAIGNS
blur granite with white marble ^anirters^nd its broad
wide "teps were of the same smoothly dressed blue graTUte.
From the corridors opened what had been «]» »-7"»\f "^
ktoratories, plain, handsome, well-lit rooms fifteen f^t high,
twenty broad, and from twenty to fifty feet long, some of
them conteintag stores of the most modem apphances for
the tS« of technical science. There were exceUent
uth^mTInd lavatories. Externally the bujUmg was
Grecian in character, and was two stones m heigW; the
c^Xl block had a fine facade in the Connthian style, with
«rved stone mouldings and pilasters, and was topped by a
weU^esigned cornice, which also ra,n round the whole of the
wSis. The lower story was in dressed ashlar work, sm-
mounted by a Grecian frieze, whUe the upper story apP^
Sw brick covered with plaster and cement work highly
^nTmentri round the windows and in its^ntral block was
a very large handsome hall of fine proportions and nchly
orw^ented! Altogether it was an ideal buildmg for a
SS" bui though Surgeon M of the Royal Navy had
Sone CaVwork iS fitting it for our reception, yet it was m
Zfy'^Tys in a foul state^from the Austrians bavmg occupied
it as a barracks when they were m possession of tbe towi-
In one of the class-rooms we three members of the unit
enSmp^, making our beds on the floor -md «t to work
to have every part of the buildings cleaned and washed out
by Srbian soldiers, and to plan its arrangements for receivmg
our sta« and the patients when they came. ,^
We had some visits from the professors who had been
teaching in the Gymnasium, and I cannot say that I was
hlehrLpressed by their qualifications, for some of them
taew nrSnguage beyond Serbian, and it was hard to see
^w m^em'Tcilnce ^uld have been taught efficiently by
those who were uninstructed in German, French, EngUsh,
°'Thfm°iitary events which occurred whUe I was in Belgrade
at tWs tine were of minor magnitude. We had only Mty
Brit^h naval artillerymen in the country, but they did their
S="r^th their navaYguns, aided ^Y^'^^^J^Zt^I^^
ffunners. They had rigged up asmallwar vesselon the Danube,
f^ w^h it they contrived to keep the Austnans lively ;
™ one occasion Major E , who was afterwards killed on
Se F^Swhen she blocked the port of Zeebrugge
^nt uTthe Danube in the dark of the night, as he had done
^^ K« before, passed successfuUy through the enemy s
m"re-fields and defences, torpedoed and »"1^ °»« °^ ^^^f"
monitors which were lying among some islands ten mUes
SERBIA ,35
up the river above Semlin, and brought back his vessel and
crew through a heavy fire, without loSing a man '"''
lue Austrian guns were sometimes going, by night as well
tL^L^' °V^^, ^""^- *•"* *•'«'' ^ ^* » not dSe^ on
the high winds which swept over Belgrade, sailinc over
Semlm and the territory held by the enmy, drawtaf th?iJ
sented all the warfare which was then going on. ^
I .(
, M
m
Back to the Mediterranean
b^n^niHI!"*"!? J ^^, ^•'"Pon'rily to leave Belgrade, having
moSis '''""'' *"™"' °"*' ^ ""'"'I'sent for U
..^•".I "as leaving Belgrade the French aeroplanes were
still soaring over the Save, and the Austrian guns were shelto^
them unsuccessfully. On reaching Nisch I again mrt S
a cordml reception, and Dr. Yeilitsch, the head "urg^n
b^^He*^* V ""^ '^ '""*» "^ ""y relation wSCd
h3^ V '».=''', offered to receive the patient into hU
hospital Yeraitsch was an able surgeon, who had re^iv^
h^ medical education in Russia, aid knew someT^
friends in Petrograd well. In the Nisch hoIpiteUhere wal
tZ^SnU,^'"'\I^'"'^ H'^' """^ gentLen an" 21
tl^ n..^^t r ?' '"*'' ?^"y "*''" nationalities, so that in
S,,f r i °' languages it was a veritable ' Mac«oine"
Sve) U„d"^r"t^ ' ^ *"' '*'>^* °' seeing Uskub
(SKoplye) Under the mommg sunshine, in the middle of
?hr^''f "7 • l*^'- '"P'' """^ ''''""''^"t ''ate', a ««ne ^
the greatest richness, rose a high knoll covered with houses
and c^wned with a fortress, with white minarets ridng
from the town ; and all around, at a distance of a few miks
^ 1 iS?f:^ mountains capped with glittering snlw '
At the SerbiMi frontier there was a strict elimination
^„tW?^^*'''"i^T.''*'™"'^'^^ff<l"aiantinewcreiSSute
but 1 was permitted to pass with the simple queries as to ' who =
wWch werl tSTr »^'°".rt u^^'iT'^ '"'° Greek ^rZge.,
wmch were better than the Serbian both in quality and cleln-
here r/""^*^ ^J^' *^'"'"8 at Salonika. C JSi
there was a quarantane examination, but not of a severe
nature. A medical officer simply struck a ma?ch and iS
kJ
,40 REMINISCENCES OF THREE CAMPAIGNS
at u.. and fonniOine spray was «juirted into the compartment,
after which we were fcee to proved into the city.
There I found my invaliTin the Greek hospital oUed. I
do not know why/the Hflpital Fran^», ^THll of »*
two English doctors, a Greek medico, and the ""O'e* ?' "^
un?t hSLng about like benevolent bees- nearly all of them
contriving to have a finger in the pie of good deeds ; white
Se menSf the unit, each in his different way, strove to show
thtiT^ will ; they were like a set of sisters and brothers
It waf^ touching. aU was so spontaneously done, and
L« wUh^ne «.uld have formed for the invalid was already
:;S^ »S J— had filled the room with b^ufful
flowera and roses, and the Amencan missionary. Dr. H— -,
aSd toi wife, sent offers to do anything they couM, and to
suDTily fresh milk and eggs to the patient. t^„j«„
?t beo^ advisable to have the patient taken to London
for atSnc^^. and there ensued a long detay in Salonika
SforeihU "uld be arranged for. The telegraph Imes and
^bte" had Sen requisitioned by the authorities connert^
wtth the war, and this made the question of finance one of
much dSty The Banque Nationate de Grice would not
S^^cL aS^ mon4 withoiTt being "-thorised by a »Wegam
S,m London, while the telegram to there, ^h'«h I ^ed m
7^A for which I oaid as much as 89 drachmai 95 lepta, at the
S^' offlc^ wi^ever sent off and it was on^ aft«^u^
Hdav that I was enabled, by the kindness of Hr. W-— -. the
ffih^nU to obtain a sum of gold from a merchant m
f«hanfle for my cheque on Messrs. Barclay and Co. It
wTstXioSi coUection of gold coin which I received, Fren^,
wasacuTOiM „ ^^ " ^i Turkish pieces were there;
^ir;e« » o/^ l^^theXy of^he Ar^Napotec^^
!^d some were Egyptian with Arabic charactos. Wh«i
Sf SctirwafXmpleted I esteemed myse f fortimate
to hS^fwld in my belt ; without it we could not have
ScSrf froT^lonika. and there business matters were m
S^Smort confusion, and consequently the war prices wer*
^Xft^rtime we were in tb< onth of May, and the heat
was g^t. &lonika stank Uk sewer and the vane^ot
Tt^nch^was surprising: each b, se, not to ™f '"'If^i
!l™.)i t« nosse^ ita own peculiar odour, and the HOpital
^'SSis wrr^hf m^t <Sorifen>us quarter of the town.
^toJ evin its operation theatre offended one^ nostrils.
Yrt w7« it not for man and his dirty ways. Satomka might
be a olS The inner bay of the Gulf, ten miles across
^allS^ns, is beautiful, and the town lie. finely on its
SERBIA
I ,-
341
iMWtten shore, but the place waa insutferably dirty, and the
ahabltanU, accustomed untU the other day to TurkUh wavs
S^ J^ • ' ^'^ If^'"^ '^^»*- There were compensations
tothe du-greeafile. Mount Olympus was one of thele It
«ta»cted even by lU ehisiveness. In the earliest morning,
before almost any one was awake, its snowy ridge appeareS
^th. roll of cloud, half-way down the sid« and th^e'^i
i«j;^l.iV*'.u •*« '°«n«>" the innumerable summits, a
flttmg «at for the gods, gathered cumuli of clouds round Uie
top, and permitted only ghmpses of some of the peaks to
wifw°i • u T"""" '«"'" '** '^^ appeared/tinged
Witt pale pmk as the sun set; but always Tits ^eTor
O^^^^*' '*' ^*" *^ horizontal rolls of d?iu
«rt^f~ ^^"^ every eye J it is fiiscinating to watch it.
»tter rare appearances, for often it U not visible for many
.^fJi ♦w;i.-^ ""? **'°P**^ *° "^ke its ascent, but wm
aMured t^t thu wa. mipossible, since, apart from the dirtan "
It wa. said that the inhabitants who woQ be met witlM?e«
dangoou. and could not be trusted to abstain from atta<iS^
traveUtts. I had not even tte consolation of gettinTi
suMewftil photograph of the gtorious giant. *
ti^^t^JS^i^^ '?} ^^'^- When I was formerly
there in the middle of Apnl winter had not lost ite grip, and
the only flowers to be seen were the graceful, scented white
wUd ms, but m May, a week or two later, there was profusion
l^^J; ""T' ?^»nthemums, and many otter blossoms,
^Itivated and wild. The vines were in flower and leaf, and
tte foluige of the trees was fuU, even the horse -che;tnut
candles were ateiost fully out. But tte beauty was evan-
escent : sprmg, which laste for months in Scotland, took but a
few days to complete ite evolution in Salonika.
Regular direct communication with the outeide world was
atoost entuelv cut off. A chance steamer for Malta was the
best ejQt which could be hoped for, and even that was to take
a roundabout course. ^^
LI
^LOMtKA TO Malta
^X* """•^•wd ourselves fortunate to find a means of escape
^er a kmg detentfon, during which we had to And that
-.-•oniSa *-s= But always bade in tte sunshine. After a
few days of heat, so sweltering that one could not sleep well
at night, we had days of thunderstorms when the wind
( H
■ r
34a REMINISCENCES OF THREE CAMPAIGNS
.wept over us from the northwert, Olympui hid Wmietf
behind an impenetrable veil of miit. heavy rain and oold
set in so that we had to hurry back into thick clothing and
sat about with cold feet ; but they brought the comfort of
quiet sleep and freedom from the mosquito. ,^ .
On the tenth of May the Messageries boat Mnumd turned
up in the bay. and the Greek authorities gave permuamn
for the invalid to proceed direct on board from the quay m
front of the hotel, in place of having to undergo the fiitigue
of being conveyed by the usual circuitous and inconvenient
rouah streets and customs house stoirs. and the VMse proved
to be the acme of comfort, so we thankfiiUy booked our
passages to Malta, where we could cateh one of the India
liners: The Mououl, a boat of some TOOO tons burden,
was exquisitely clean and sweet, with the most attentive of
stewards, spacious state rooms, and fine baths.
On our last day Olympus emerged ttom his veil of cloud,
though in a gloomy mood ; but just as evenmg fell he show«i
a line of silver snow edging one of his peaks. We had the
stalest of seas as we proceeded down the Gulf, «id next
morning at sunrise we were entering the harbour of Mudros
in the island of Lemnos. then occupied by the British as a
naval base. The harbour was a spacious one, with hills
everywhere enclosing it, the water occupying the crater of
a great volcano, with recesses in which were anchored numben
of warships ; but into the inner sanctuary which contamed
these we were not permitted to make our way, having to
content ourselves with anchoring outside the line of buoys
and nets which protected our valuable fleet agamst the inroads
of submarines. There we were visited by British and French
torpedo-boats inquiring into our business, and directing us
as to what we were to do. Our call at Mudros appeared to
be chiefly concerned with the mails, and during our long
detention in awaiting them we were able to take photographs
and sketches of what lay before our eyes. Except for the
evidences of war, the bare and treeless Uland was devoid of
interest. Much of it seemed to be composed of sedunentarj
rock with basalt overlying it.
Next morning we were in the harbour of Pireus, havmg
passed several cruisers and men-of-war, and had views of
numberless bare and conical Greek islands before night came
on Years previously, when traveUers in Greece were few,
I had traveUed through Attica, landing at the Pirseus, which
was then a smaU port with a limited trade m figs, sponges,
and small wares ; and we had landed on the opcm beach on
which a small wooden sentry-box served for the customs
SERBIA
''M
Ui
which weriying WtJ or7S^rrBdi.i:r^°"'"- °PP«»'t«
them th. chig&g aU?ttf'hLrK"".iT/
w« contmuou.. On thi. occasion IdM nT^Uit'llJ^//
InT"^ ^'"«* •^ "'*"'^ »'""* '""t I h«i sailid about G~o,
wrecked on that iron-bound headland He w^ fk!'^^ i
survivor of the crew, and in <mIi7,X fnr h^^^ r ""^^
mil«i away f,t,m any habitation, hts^Uttd^^\i ""'
produce and on contributions from p^J^T^^ which wl^!:
SL^ti.":ri:.°LT^;.-4vEip a?i^^^^^^^
d^ud^ o»tlr^-t t^ot,\-:t ^-^-^^
whether we had seen any warships- an(^ ar^h, f^,I!!f ^
shght touch m ,t of the Highland Ring. wMrothe« It
round and chanted a monotonous sonrLl d r~ IHrf -i
anythu^ but exhilarating; and, when^ih^'welried^f'tt^'^
to mdulge ma game which they appear^ y^XH^^^'
■ie essence of which was violently slam^ <^ oOk«' fi2:
and guessing who had given the strokS^^ ^**
I. ;
i }
y 1
344
REMINISCENCES OF THREE CAMPAIGNS
Ln
Malta
To enUr the htfbour or Valetta at sunria* u an experienoe
that itamp» itaelf deep in the memory. It ii, in its way, one
of the moit wonderful sighU in the world. From thc^^narrow
entrance the harbour spread* out like a hand with many
flnoers and thumbs, into endless teoesses which at our visit
wMe packed with vesseb of all kinds, sitiall craft, grey gun-
boaUrmenH>f-war, and hundreds of tiny boaU that poured
out in a flood to fetch ofl the passengers. High oTerhead, on
all sides, hung aroaded buildings asoendmg the precipitous
slopes of theharbouT m tiers and rows ; huge palaces occu-
pied every foot of the flat-topped plateaux above ; beneath
stairway* quays ran round the water's edge, and along the
skyline were interminable ramparts pierced for guns, doubtless
now useleM, but evidences of the time, care, labour, and cost
which had been expended for ages in heaping up these fortifica-
tions so lavishly that scarce a single yard of the circumference
of the main harbour was not a frowning Ui* of casemates
and emplacements for hundreds on hundreds of cannon.
Malta is an island which many dislike on account of its
heat, dust, glare, and flies, and it must be conceded that
they are tr^ng. But it has many recommendations, and
especially to any one who is interested in antiquity. It
aivrathe visitor the impression of being enormously old.
Man seems to have been digging and excavating in it for
thousands of years, until it is quite honeycombed. It re-
minds one of an ant-heap where the ants are babiM, women,
and men with skins of the colour of a Cochm-Chma hen s
ess A great part of the interior of the island consists either
ofteiraces buUt up laboriously in order that somethmg may
be grown on soU collected on bare patches of probably ooralhne
limestone rock, or of quarries whence the soft stone has been
sawn out in incredible quantities to construct thehouses, towers,
churches, walk that elbow each other all over the island, and
villaaes and towns which are so numerous as apparently to
runmto one another ; moisture coUects in the depth of these
quarries, and in them are formed small kitchen gardeiis
where onions, potatoes, and the like flourish and meet with
a ready market. Contrasting with the green colour m these
sunken hollows, anything which is grown on the surface level,
such as grain crops and trees, looks withered and dry, and is
always covered with a powdering of dust.
The town of Valetta and the suburbs around it are crawlmg
and
SERBIA ,^5
». till the .kvlB,* ,. Hi^^, .h ^^,, '^j "ton
yt and covered wayi
■ille above, gardcni
.-aiumi, marguerites,
mpt to the aieent of
— J 7,., 7 "* ■" """e* on tei
nadef, till the skyline i. fringed
marvellously beautiftjl. Stiai-'^
Invite one to descend and
glowing with the rich colou
""■nai, broom, boi h: villiai
the higher parts.
Uvedintheinfan<^ofhir,;cl!^' " "'"'='' ?"»"»*«*.» man
The men of the islands go about in oicturMfln. r.^ »i.
r°S!?/" '" ''!?=•' «='o-k' with their h^i:?,'^v::e5^?; tt
an hour and a half across the iuthem parto' ,be i^^nS
we found >t on the top of a low emine^ ?^e"o V '!«
of Krendi where it overlooks the sea on ^^/^mt '- v j!?!
shore. There it formed an unposing . ■ jeit t" V tT^
»ky. The most ancient a, d most st?iVi;. pa,: *,i u *^
a group of five standing stones or menhii-. Iv "^r wh ', S
unhewn slabs eleven to twelve feet hig^ w„ p • - " '..^J
to edge, and between two ..f them wns i > ,v i "
with its long axis vertical, through Xh! a \ ■■;'*;;:;^"
bearmg of nine and three quarter dent^th^ i i ***^
strfiTin'ti.t'''-^ ^"p of Sn^rfi^h .;^n"h^':
^trti;rb:s?i°i?"bSrrjTe*;;^?r^^^^^^^^
rac* of nature-wo^hippe^ whosL\e^'lte is „„k"own
•^~ ?.«""* **°"«'' •>"▼« come to be designated by ftudenU
Ha^ Si^' ^: ,*''^"*'i^ ^^•- ^^ five*2:ento"o
tr^eSrchS:; ::. aKrL'^^cStit^^^
and CaUemish in Scotland, ^I^^ Tveb'u5'"ik'
'11
■ t
• 'i \
III
mi
M[
'ill
I'l'^i;
346 REMINISCENCES OF THREE CAMPAIGNS
England, and the menhirs of Camus «nd others in Brittany
and Normandy.
Around and between the menhirs was a mass of more recent,
though ftiU enormously old, constructions of dressed stone,
the work of a Neolithic people. None of them exceeded six
feetinheight. They were a maze of ceUular structures, courts,
chamben, passages, doorways, steps, recesses, dolmen-like
oioups, baetyU, stone tables., stone pillars of cyhndncal or
Miuare shape, and the whole place was full of circular, oval,
JSd quadrangular perforations, direct and oblique, some of
which serred as doorways ; as weU as of cup-markings, cups,
and basins, on the walls and floors. The walls were ma
style of masonry which was used, though not necessanly
onginated by or confined to, the early Celtic races of Europe,
being formed of fairly large sUbs placed edge to edge m
somewhat parallel rows and the intervening spice fflled m
with shapeless rubble so as to form walls, and the slabs were
beautifully dressed and squared, and on many parts dehcately
ornamented with tiny markings like the cells of a honeycomb,
or even like the papillae patterned on the skin of the human
finger tips. This ornamentation reminded one a Uttle of
the wavy ornamentation of the interior of the Gavr Inis
tumulus in Brittany. All the dressing and ornamentation
si^emed to have been done with roughly pointed stone unple-
ments. On th. fop of the slab walls were courses of stones
which were ai • .rt certainly a yet later form of masonry,
for they were arranged in well-laid courses, with the centre
of each block placed over the interval between the two
underlying blocks, a style of building which bespoke a con-
siderable advance in the mason's art ; and in some instances
the blocks were so dressed that their curves corresponded
with the circular shape of the cells which they completed
above. There was no sign of these buildings havmg ever
had any roofing, unless of light and perishable materiaU.
To sum up, Hagiar Kim, as I interpreted it, showed, firtt,
the five unhewn menhirs of PaleoUthic and Megalithic maxi ;
second, the pinaxic slab walls of an occupation by a Neolithic
race ; and third, the additions to the tops of the walls, with
possible temporary roofing, by a yet more rerent race who had
attained <-onsiderable advances in the masonic art.
The evidences of successive occupations, such as can also
be traced in Stennis, CaUemish, and Stonehenge, were to me
most interesting, as the authorities I had consulted had not
prepared me to find them.
So much of the time I eouW spare was spent at Hagiar Kim
that I had no opportunity of visiting Unaidra, which Ues not
SERBIA
247
S^J*r*"*' ^ ^. ~"^ * """^ "«t «~» to the island of
Valetta Muwum, and the writings of Professor Zammit. its
dBtrnguished curator and other authors, as also fh,m des^p!
nriH?i.« fj"^ ^^P*"- ''") ^ ™ afterwards by naval and
mJitary friends who vis.ted them, I conclude thkt they con-
Un, ^o teuly Meplithic menhirs, and so far as I can d^c^er
Hl^ Kim IS the only place where specimens of these exist
m the Malta group of islands.
wiS ^1? V^ *•** ?i^«!J" °^ «newing my acquamtance
with iKjrd Methuen, the Governor of the blanS, my old
commander m the South African War
Malta to London
Ik ftese last years so many have had the experience of
^IT^ ^Zl^"^ ■•? ""-tM". that it would be out of place
to descnbe the incidents of the voyage from Malta to London
Wf -C^'k ?i ^^"^. ?'"'"'■ She was a rickety old
tw!L^ . ~"'^ "°* "t^^'y 8«* "P » 8^ter speed than
twelve knots, and was therefore a comfortable i^rk for a
»^d'^T m"^- ^' ^ " ■"^"« °^ «" ""rts of weather"
and in the Mediterranean some memorable sunsets, with the
western sky all blood, and the sea in the foreground red, shot
with peat stops of green and deepest steel blue. We were
directed to keep a course atong the southern side of the
SMiterxanean, until we reached the Straits of Gibraltar,
where we learned, from a British gunboat which stopped us
to give orders for our future course, that Italy had joiJIS in
tr7«J'" *.^^ '!^' °^ *''' ^"tente. We were insticted to
keep fifty miles to the west of the usual course, and hence
nX fK I!^'. ^!" ""^ ^ """"^ "PP^^'te to the SciUy
Istands, the ship s head was turned eastwards, and the fullest
^J^l'I^ .?"* ""u*", «° "P ^^^ Channel. All lights were
S!S^^ u ' the portholes were curtained up, and the steamer
fl^f K * ""^ *,*""« "P *" ^•^""^J ^^ ""ch velocity
that her upper works groaned and shrieked as if they were
^Jlt^^ ^^ ^^^ ^^ '^^'''^ *'«'^ them in position. It was
nearly full moon so that, although a collision had to be risked,
there was very little fear of its occurrence, and an easterly
haze on the horizon favoured our conceahnent without im-
peding a pretty clear outlook for a couple of miles around.
-Kif ^^"l^ T '»'««' °"^lves off Dover, and saw the great
white hghts of the lighthouses on the Enghsh coast, but all
.1
ili
iMi ■■
in:
348 REMINISCENCES OF THREE CAMPAIGNS
waa dark on the south where France lay. Opposite Dunkirk
the big guns were booming, and we entered a crowd of mine-
sweepers at work, gunboatu, torpedo-boats, cruisers, and
merchantmen. , ^, , , .
When passing up the Thames we witnessed the blowing-up
of the Prineeu Irene in the Medway, and as the exptos"]"
raised a great baUoon of smoke, becoming a column tmged
with fire in its centre, reaching a height of several hundrea
feet before spreading out into the form of a giant tree, we
obtained a photograph of it. . „ , . ^ .u-
It was afternoon on the STth of May when we reached the
Tilbury Docks.
LIV
Tbbouoh Unpleasant Italy
Aftee having my patient satisfactorily attended to in London,
I had a strange journey back to Belgrade. Both the nursing
sister and I who had had charge of the invalid all the way
from Salonika were anxious to return to Serbia as quickly
as possible, and from inquiry made at Cook's office there
apMared to be every probability of making a rapid journey
through Italy to Brindisi, and thence by the usual steamer
to Greece ; so it was unfortunately decided to try that route,
as it promised to save many days, or even weeks of time.
It did not occur to any of our advisers in London, and certamly
not to me, that since Italy had declared war on the Central
Powers, all the usual arrangements of railway and steamer
lines would be altered, and that most of the Itahan ports
would be closed. We were destined to have the misfortune
of finding this out when it was too late.
On arnving at the Gare de Lyon in Pans, we discovered
that our Cook's ticket to Brindisi via the Mont Cenis Tunnel
would involve the delay of a day in Turin ; Cook s agent
advised us to go by the Simplon Tunnel to Milan if we wished
to be sure of catching the Brindisi mail boat, and by doing
this he had no doubt of our at once finding the connection
across to Greece. The route by which we settl^ to go 1«1
therefore, it will be observed, through neutral Switzerland,
and the result was that when I stepped out of the tram at
the Swiss frontier I was arrested as being in Bntish uniform
and told I was liable to be interned. But among the sensible
Switzers red tape does not reign absolute, and after my
destination had been explained, my medical character attested,
and telephonic communications exchanged between the
frontier and headquarters, I was permitted to continue my
SERBIA a^
journey, though I had to remain inoonspicuous in the sleepins
^' ?^ "y exterior as civilian as might be, until we
tua pMsed Bneg and gone through the tunnel into Italy.
Havmg thus escaped, like a bird from the fowler's snare
1 prepwed to enjoy the run down the Italian valleys. But
Italy was. as we soon discovered, taking the war right seriously.
Every carnage was searched for Swin newspapers, whose
n!ili;if"ii'2j° ^*"'y '"" P^^^i*^- and, as under military
orfers all the compartmer:t^ had to keep their blinds closed
W Vln)ir f"^' T r^'^'^ly .by sun^ptitijus peeps that one
^ffn J. ^^ H'"' M"88»™- At that time too British
unifoms were to all appearance unknown in Italy: mine
created a sensation, and a far from pleasant one, and it eot
£r K l^'/'^ u* *' ^ ''^"* '° *''* refreshment rooms to
fetch food for the sister and myself. Moreover, all the
reeding arrangements which used to make the Brindisi route
^m?hL''w'".,"'*y''"'=f- ^""^ ^°°^ •""• t° *>e obtained
somehow, but whenever 1 emerged to obtain something to
Mt ^ups of people came staring after me. Most of them
were friendly enough, but on the trains, which were crowded
with soldiers, the spy mania raged, and several times I was
accusal or suspected, and had to produce my papers to satisfy
the officers who were fetched along to interview me. At one
station I was fonnally arrested by the bersaglieri, who were
dischargmg the functions of the gendarmes or carabinieri
and taken to the guard-room. There, however, the officer in
command was most courteous, and after having seen my
papCTs was politeness itself, saluted and shook hands, and
SZJIwT"''^'*^*''.' ™"*^^ ^"'""l i"to hat-touching
friendly fellows. My impression is that this occurred at
Bolopa where there was a delay of three hours, during
which the attention I aroused on the crowded pUtform and
restaurant was such as I should gladly have dispensed with,
out bad to submit to.
When it became quite dark all the stations, as well as the
irlT""" °!u f "'^g'^- were lit only by the dimmest of blue
^ri!*' ^ ^ ^l^"l^ ""' °"* °^ *= question, and this along
w^th other drawbacks caused the journey to be tedious and
trymg Beyond Bologna much of the South Railway runs
will ^^P'^fands of the Adriatic, parts of it being strongly
fortified, and there the lighting was maintained darker tl^ii
elsewhere, the stations being in absolute obscurity except
InH H*"^-^"?', ^^^^ ""^^^ ^y ^«"" °P»q"e coverings
and dif^smg below only a faint illumination through venr
much obscured dark-green glass. One was impressed with
' 'i I:
'
250 REMINISCENCES OF THREE CAMPAIGNS
the oare, even to the minutest detail, which characteriied
Italy's entrance into the war. That there was need for it all
was evident from the fact that parts of the line had alrwdy
been bombarded from the sea by Austrian monitors, which
I saw had laid some of the buildings by the line in ruins, on
the 1st of June, at a pUce called Sinigaglia.
Ban was in a state of great excitement from some cause
which I could not discover, and when it became known thoe
that I was a British ofBcer, a lady and her Uttle boy msuted
on kissing my hand, ofiSoers came and shook hands, and all
waved to me, while many saluUtions were shouted as the tram
moved off for Brindisi. », . j- •
We had a most unpleasant reception at Brmdisi. Up to
tlwn we had continually received assurances that the boats
were still running from that port to Greece, but when I pro-
ceeded to the police ofBce in the station, I found that all the
steamers had been discontinued, that we were to all appear-
ance at an impasse, and must return to London. The person
in authority, Signor A , the prefect or whatever else he
may have been, was a most uncivil person ; he kept us waitmg
until he had disposed of all the others, among whom wctb
a body of recruits whose papers he went over and verified,
and only then did he see fit to acknowledge our presence.
After abruptly telling me that we would get no help m pro-
secuting our journey, and snubbing one of his officers who
suggested that there were ways of passing on, he proceeded
to pick holes in my passport, endeavouring to make capital of
the discrepancy between the date of its original issue and the
existing date, and plainly betrayed a desire to make out that
we were German or Austrian spies, though he must have
been perfectly well aware that we were British. This fellow
was the only Italian from whom we received actual rudeness,
and it is right to add that an Italian officer in uniform who
was present did his best to mitigate his discourtesy.
Brindisi was in utter blackness. Every window was
hermetically sealed from showing light, and the streets had
to be groped through in the feeble starlight. But we found
a hotel close to the station, ahnost the only one not convert«i
to military purposes, knocked up the inhabitants at mid-
night, and secured some vile rooms insufferable from heat,
flies, and mosquitoes, and in the morning called on the
British Consul. At first he knew of nothing that we could do
but return to England, but this I was determined if possible
not to do, and on further inquiries it emerged that a former
British Consul of the place, Mr. C , had a connection with
a Greek oil boat trading in the Mediterranean which was
SERBIA J -I
•xpeet^to touch next day at GaUipoli, a unaU leaDort on
theextreme tip of the heel of Italy ^^ '^
The harljour of Brindisi was given up to the war Thr^
^ge rrondads w«e lyii« ii, it. and notfces w^ put" u7^
the port was cloMd and mined, while anti-aircraft giZ were
busy pracUsmg and bursting their shells ovCThiT T^
raaeiy, while the poUce contemptuously sent me a verbal
X^I.'T*'' ""• ^"ke<P«' that I had Tp, to the S
office ; I took no notice of this, with the resultihat pwSv
my passports were returned to me through the ConsTwSh
at^d^o'^olr^^•/*'"7•"""'^"thatal^S„d:^^
wmcn 1 learned that immediately before Italy's declaration
of war a penon calBng himself J , whidb name I was
drlj^ln"" ^ PTP"" '^^ ""^ by him, had ^^ne ab^ut
dressed m semi-uniform, and he and a female comMntoniad
» Jt^a. sarf, cheated several people in Italy'^XfTi^of
When we left Brindisi at four o'clock on the su«»«lin»
mornmg it was with the full expectati^t^t m a fe^^
v^'°"cfe^oMtaIv^ h'^'' '^t' °° *^' deckof a neu3
vessel. Clear of Italy and its maddening suspicions and snv
sSktar^.'"'' ""\ ' •^ ^t7wea^"LKtffi
sleep in fear that we might miss the early start, and the hours
a^ ^rdfn '%'" ^^<' r«l">toe., »unttag?he miS
a^vS rri^"^?" "l^™5tely. But at last the hoS
amved, I packed and earned down my baggage, paid the
^'n1t°c^^^' to the ' d^ndance ' where ttfs^ ^
been accommodated, and got oureelves and our beloniri^
mto the tram, not however without being stopp^T^
sentry whom we had some difficulty in passfaB
Cunosi^ and suspicion were rampant on our way across
^k^Z^- P'"°"\>^ <"! P-^f the corridor t^S
talked and cross-questioned, armed soldiers came demanding
our passports at their own wUl, and we madeT mueh^nT
T^tfJ r"^ *'J?.^ '""'^ ^''"'^ »^^« been a"l''„S
"Igpt out at any of the stoppages.
ti^T "-^ ""'^hed GaUipoli ^e were in the happy expeeta-
^^ fln^"« '*",;«^°" ^"^ the Epir« which weS-
ri^uW T """''"r* '" ^^^ ^y' ''"t the news met us that
It wouU not arrive for a couole of hours. I therefore after
^'i^' t'tr "* "^^ f •* ^ *^ ' I°"ike Atmo;j;i:'en
reiraiei, to place ourselves beyond suspicion oroceeded
with an escort of sokliew and foUow«i byth^rabbTe^the
town, to the quarters of the Commissary of PolLe to ai^«
^1
\i
J
'ii
i
1
ill
{'') 1
L'l IIp
m
tP
a52 REMINISCENCES OF THREE CAMPAIGNS
OUT preienoe and ayoid another arrest, and found he had
lying before him a telegram of some twenty lines concemmg
us. He was perfectly courteous, took down the particulars
demanded by his duty, and dismissed us after a brief visit.
A wire which I presented at the telegraph offtce for trans-
mission to the Olympos Hotel at Salonika to meet the boat
and reserve rooms was refused point-blank.
While wiiting for the steamer I explored the place. Ualli-
poh has a fine large bay, in the bottom of which the town bes
on a rocky island, surrounded by narrow reaches of the sea,
and united to the mainland by a handsome bridge, aooss
which the road ftom the station runs. At the town end of
tht bridge rise the towering btaok bastions of an old Italian
fortress, and under its shadow are the crowded mass of narrow
lanes and medieval buUdings constituting the town, a jumble
of alleys, stairways, comers, covered passages, recesses, towers,
and roofs, like a small Valetta.
At ten in the forenoon we gazed hopefuUy out to sea, round
the point to the south where the smoke of the coming steamer
was, we were confidently assured, every instant expected to
appear. But minutes passed, hours passed, and at length
it dawned upon us that it might not arrive until night, and
finally, when night came, we despairingly realised that it
might not arrive at aU. Our straits were becoming desperate ;
for there was only one miserable, dirty hotel in Gallipoli— a
less desirable one could not be conceived— and the proposal
I made that we should sleep on the floor of the steamer
company's office was negatived. But by the good offices ot
Mr and the clerks of the Ionian line I got m touch with
one of the boatmen I had been talking to, Salvadore Cavallere,
a rough but kindly soul, who undertook to do somethmg for
me and thesisterwassimilarlyattendedto,Idonotknowhow.
Seizing a brush, comb, and toothbrush, I set off to get some
food and a ptce to spend the night in, though without any
expectation of being able to sleep in such dirty-lookmg sur-
romidings. Cavallere guided me first to a little unpretentious
restaurant, where we had a decent dinner, chiefly of red
mullet, and then took me up steep narrow covered lanes,
through courtyards, and up broken flights of steps, to the
house of his brother-in-law. A marvel 1 A clean bedroom,
with clean linen, plenty of towels, plenty of cold water, and
conveniences al) astounding in such a place. Never had there
been a better investment than I had made when early m the
morning of that day I had chanced to gain the good-will of
CavaUere by presenting him with a couple of pipefuls ot
English tobacco: this had procured me these desirable
SERBIA
»53
quarters. I made friends with the brother-in-Uw and hi*
swarm of httle children, and with the old mother with white
hair who must m her youth have been a most beautiftil
ojeature, and mdecd was so still, with her angel-like face.
Theu: house had evidently long ago been some sort of palace ;
Its entrance was like that of a fortress, its rooms, thrown
together m every direction and at many levels, like boxes
tumbled out of a cart ; each room with many windows and
many doors leading to mysterious places, openings to stairs
leading up and down, and recesses leading into other rooms
and passages, like the Castle of Udolpho. But all as cleaa
as a new pin. No suspicion of the presence of a bun, nor
even of a flea.
We dreamed of walking on board the steamer in the mominc.
But It was a sad delusion. Even the excellent and unexpected
good night's rest did not suffice to fortify one to take philoso-
phieaUy the news with which my host greeted me on opening
my door m the morning, that the boat had not come— wm
not coming at all. Were we ever to get out of the horrible
country? Making a hasty breakfast, I hurried to the
steamer office and found that it was too true. At midnight
word had been received that the Epiros was not coming to
GalUpoh, but was to touch at Cotrone instead, and that we
should have to hurry round to that port if we wished to catch
It. It was disgusting to contemplate returning to the hateful
Brmdisi, receiving perhaps move official insolence, and to
crawl m dow Italian local railways for fifty miles, stopping
at every httle station for five, or ten minutes, or very commonly
for half an hour ; to have to change carriages and shift baggage
amid rapacious porters, and everywhere have the unpleasing
traffic with the police once more. Moreover, my stock of
money was — not ebbing, but — streaming away, and I was
almost at the last of the stock of French Louis d'ors which I
had provided for the journey. Also there was the sister to
be thought of. She had throughout behaved splendidly, as
an English lady does, but she was getting knocked up by
the perpetual travelling, want of sleep, and mosquitoes.
And I was myself in a somewhat similar condition. If she
(or I) were to fall ill I I could not have left her without money
enough to carry her through, or to enable her to go back to
England and find another route to Serbia. My purse was
growing too lean for all this.
It was a fix, but the situation had to be faced. I decided
to risk going to Cotrone ; went to the Chief of the Police and
asked him to wiie to Cotrone that we were coming there, so
as to obviate trouble, for it was reported that the Duke of
I
:>'■% I'l!
:i,l
li
aj4 REMINISCENCES OF THREE CAMPAIGNS
• had hitt been arrested there M a tpf- W* Ttfdui
M
our bag! in the steamer office, said a gratatftil forewell to the
kind young men there, had another meal of the debcioui
red mullet, at the Ristoratoria Vittoria, and departed ftom
Gallipoli a little after midday.
It took us thirteen hours to oo round the instep of Italy
from Gallipoli to Cotrone, which is situated on the ball of
the great toe, in Calabria, and they were hours of fresh
exhibitions of the spy waBia fitom staring, jostling crowds,
most of whom w«» iMibed to be rude, though there were
some who became ^uiite fhitemal when they realised that we
were allies horn Ei«h>nd. The carriages being corridor, and
no order kept in Ac trains, every one who chose got into the
first-class c»rm(?e or came into it out of the others, and most
of the trav«>tters were soldiers whom the spectators at the
stations oheend mightily.
I was inteitsted, on the way between OaUipoh and Lecce
to oberave that the country showed a good many farm buiW-
inos which were repUcas on a small scale of the prehistoric
'Nuraghe' of Sardinia, beehive structures of uneemented
stones, with a ledge halt-way up, consisting of a lower trun-
cated cone with a small cone resting on it, a single doorway
on the ground level, and no windows. Some of them seoned
to be implement sheds or stores, but others were inhabited.
The persistence there of this primeval Mediterranean type
was remarkable. . j u
At Brindisi, where trains had to be changed, and where
the officials now knew me, there was a repetition of the
former incivility, but after passing it the disagreeables were
confined to a tedious dark night journey, which we made
along with two reticent Englishmen who were in a fix sunilar
to ours, and who appeared to be groping a way through to
Roumania or Russia via Greece.
It was two o'clock on the morning of Friday the 11th before
we got to Cotrone, and we had to hunt for a cart from some-
where, pile our baggage on it, and walk for a mile or two along
a road deep in white dust, in the starlight, before we airived
at the Hotel Pitagora, where we found the padrone awake
and expecting us. Pythagoras is said to have lived in Cotrone.
and what purports to have been his house is still shown on
the western side of its bay.
The information we received from the mnkeeper was bad ;
the EpiriM had been there but had left again, and we were
once more stranded, though there was an uncertam chance
of another boat passing the next day. The hotel, however,
was really a very good one ; it was clean, the cuisme was
SERBIA
»5S
SS^^ ooBvenieaM. wew fairly up to <Ute ; but th«
S*™* :*• .«MlM»ui and unlMiJthy ; bin .Min the .tten-
JS. J.f 1±°!!:.""^ 2" *•>• •*»««» "d even in tlic hotel
mpectabhr dre»ed mhabrtant. did the «une, .fthoi^h I
. J^^^i^*^ CaUteijn mountwn. which encircle the town
we no longer haunted by brigand., and I wa. invited to
Sf^ ? ^X ""^"B them m pursuit of bear and fallow deer,
r.^ \i.'"'' *J! ^f**"' *'*•• «8™*' •• a boat was possibly
expected on the Saturday. But a visit to the flnrS
d«c^«rf no boat ; the stoppage of all telegnuns by iTbto
left t uncertain whether it would come at aufand it warnot
unt.1 Swday afternoon that the smaU waiter came to ?he
room where I was sitting in despair, and made thrweltom!
^!^:rl: ^°" " '"F" * •"'vato.' {rZ
mmutes the baggage was packej. the bill was paid in ten
more, and ma <art and omnibus we and our poss^ions were
tianqjorted to the quay, hardly able to believe that even^
somethang would not turn up to disappoint us, and sna^
away our promised freedom. The MykaU. Hyi^ SheS
fl«g, Uy a ^long distent on the water; we pifed our aoS,
on the wharf, and wondered if the officers and soIdKho
lurked suspiaously round would not after all interpose some
oSLfTA*" •'i^""^" "" "^'P^""- However.T.LX
officer of hjgh rank came presently along ; I addressed mysetf
to hun. and by his good offices we settled matters up, paid the
n^i? « "^J- " "l^ P^"'^' '•"* °"^ t*^*" «t° a boat!
pulled off, and m a ftew mmutes vere standing on Greek pUnks
to which in gratitude I almost took off my hat. and w™
ft*e from hateful Italy We got each a good c^bSTto ou«eN^
a cup-three cups-of good tea, a deck chair, and a dai tv
dinner under an awning on deck, olives, pickles, bx,i. „.d
r^ K J u ?°V' '^"Y*^ *•»•'» ' Then fblkiwed a cau
f^^"!''"''*. **'" PW'fc*""- B . the final belts and
siien blasts, and we were off.
In the cool of the evening we swung eastwards into tbo
gk)aming saw the orange of the west darken over the rugged
hills of Calabna the lightless coast of Italy fMe andl~
appear m the darkness, and could hardly realise our happiness
to have seen the last of it and the troubles we had undSgone
tnere. To have cast the burden of care, to filly undreu tot
M^u"^'" "'«*'*' *° ^""^ » '^° 'P^nae <l'>wn. and lie in
a berth at sea once more, over the pulsings of the engines I
I I
1, 1 1 '
i '
V*
id
I:;!
3S6 REMINISCENCES OF THREE CAMPAIGNS
—it WM good. What though »ome new specimen of marine
mosquito bit my fingers and dosed up my left eye ; the
creature was welcome to it. and I slept untU eight o clock
the next morning.
LV
Thx Levant
Although we had left behind the disagreeable things of
Italy, and the delays there, we found that we should still have
to spend some time saUmg about Greece before arriving at
Salonika. We made the best, however, of this additional loss
of time, and though nothing of great moment occurred, we
saw a good many places whose names were famihar, bu which
otherwise we should never have had an opportunity of visiting,
and the voyage, with a few exceptions, sped pleasantly
enough along. ... ^ j * u _i
On the morning after leaving Italy we anchored for a short
time at Santi Quaranto on the Albanian coast, afterwards
used at a base by the Italian forces. It was a mere dot of
a place, surrounded by medieval walls, then utterly rumous
and much too big for the shrunken size of the modem town,
which lay minutely in a cup of hills with its battered houses
below and ruinous Turkish forts on the heights above,
evidences of the recent wars between the Balkan States.
Corfu was the next place to be reached, and there, by the
advice of the captain of the MykaU, I got mto ordinary
traveller's clothing, so as to diminish the probability of
being captured should we meet with an Austrian submarme
or other vessel. Greece was of course at that time neutral,
and our boat, belonging to the Hellenic Steamship Company,
would have been exempt, as would ite neutral passengers,
but it might have been otherwise with myself.
It was interesting to a North Briton to decipher on the
steamer ite owner's name, painted in large Greek <»pital
letters, ' TZON MAKDOVALL BAKBOVR,' John Jlacdowall
Barbour, who has his office in the Pirwis, where I had re-
peatedly seen his firm's name, and interviewed his clerks,
all of them Greeks, and not one among them understanding
English.
After a detention of six hours in Corfu harbour, we arrived
next morning at Patras, remained there a couple of hours,
and sailed along the Gulf of Corinth, watching the mountains
of the Morea, high, even yet snow-clad, pointed, in massive
crowded groups, and well wooded, the bulwarks of a hidden
land. On this occasion Mount Parnassus, at the end of the
SERBIA
57
on board of the Daphne, which l^aftKr's ^»
wat an annoyance, and involved a great lea of frn-Aj
".d that meanwhneZL :^„:1<^''o™,^Krf ?"r^^
a sliceof bread, a morXf Lt ov^S"he^"anT 't*''
of water, we had tu satisfy our anp^e ■?^.' I" " *""?"
the harbour was gay with bLun/Kwct o^tht r"*.'"
elect ons, but when night came I my^Twaf ,^hf„"'"w
were overflowing, so that we we« Z^l^f T\'}^^' ^°^^
in starting and'moreover"? rafthen te tetl'a^^^S'th'J
a7vS^^.;ran'?;o]?r«ber''ge^i?-^^^^^^
at &Uo„ika which s^So^^^^^XZ^r^^^::
ont^^r»sns!crrrKi^i-^^^
jodo. ^atone could have sho'? Zl^Z t^^^^^'^^l
Son^'treLCrsid? wlcl lJ^Tai«~'°n?
^'^f^"'^.""*, ^"^ ^'' fertikvali:;' ^tween'^'hi k
IMOIOCOPV RiSOlUTION TEST CHART
(ANSI and ISO TEST CHART No. 2)
^ >tPPLtED IM/OE Ini
jK (653 Eait Main StrMt
Kb flocht»l«r, Nn roili 14609 US*
'-S (716) *82 - 0300 - Phone
^B (716) 286- 5969 -Fa>
1^ 'i
258 REMINISCENCES OF THREE CAMPAIGNS
down, and we saw but few ships, one of which was a French
armed patrol steamer which came up as if to pounce upon
us, but soon tailed off satisfied with our appearance. In
the middle of the eastern side of the island we halted at the
town of Chios (Scio), lying in a lovely bay of calm sunny
water, with a belt of gieen fertility behind it, and a mile
or so inland, in contrast, was the bumt-up range of moun-
tains we had seen from the western side. The town itself
was a pretty picture, and &om the water looked clean and
prosperous, with a good roadstead enclosed in two break-
waters, within which were lying two steamers and half a dozen
ships. Two imposing windmUls were pointed out as serving
to pump up the water supply of the town from some wells
near the shore. Chios had a Grecian look about it ; only
one minaret was visible, and, with its maritime foreground,
and good quays round the harbour, had a faint resemblance
to Cape Town on a minute scale. The ship was speedily
invaded by pedlars of Chian turpentine, used as chewing
gum by ladies, and other local sweetmeats which were curious
and interesting.
In the afternoon of the same day our course was along the
dry coast of Asia Minor, in the rough seas which characterise
the gulfs of Chardonlik and Adramytium ; there our vessel
was spied at by the periscope of a submarine whose nationality
we had not the means of discovering ; and in the evening
we anchored in the harbour of Mitylene, on the eastern side
of the island of the same name. It had, though Turkish,
the same peculiar prosperous appearance as most of the
towns on the Greek islands. Its general aspect was not unlike
Corfu, the island being well wooded, well cultivated, and fertile,
hilly inland, and along the coast indented with mnnerous
bays. The harbour was in a bustle of busy trade, we our-
selves had much discharging and loading of the ship, while
an English torpedo-boat lay with a watching eye on every-
thing that was going on.
As we sailed northwards in the night after leaving Mitylene
we were stopped by a British cruiser which made inquiries
regarding our cargo and the nationality of the passengers,
but did not otherwise interfere with us. It gave us orders,
however, to direct our course along the western side of the
island of Lemnos — ^thus still further delaying us — ^because
the floating mines on the eastern side were dangerous.
Next morning the outline of Mount Athos, fifty miles away,
detached itself through the haze ; we drew up towards it.
and coasted along the west of the island of Phasos, dry but
fertile, mountainous in outline, with one or two small towns
SERBIA
bi^ Z ^i^^.^^^:^ on,, st«teh Of ^,
A/s„Tfe'^VoiSii?:„^'^or
mto the sea, crowned with Tm^^JJf^^ "^^^ projecting
m crenellated bastions with T W "H''^'' ""'* ^"''"^^d
with the interior of thi knd T^ "I""'""* connecting it
the slopes of the coast and r^f J v. w"""*""? *''^'" '«y «l^'"g
brook flowing past it «^!^^ refreshed us with the sight of f
There in I^vaCw 'unWre^V^T" r'^^"" ''^^^ by
and Mitylene, and took on ^^d^^rint ""T ^'°"' ^^ios
tobacco. This part of the B^tk,nV • ","'"*'*'' "^ ''"'es of
species of tobacco which k^^ZTT-^ ^°^' ^^'^ finest
ported, mostly, w^ "to W to '^/^ ""t" '"'.'"^ '^"'^ «"
factored into the so-called E^Han&tT^" "* "^ """•"■
g;^;s=ltrgl^-£^^^^^^^^ np the
LVI
Serbian Hospitals
rt had been created Its pu™o^L*5'^'="°"''^°^^l>ich
pat-ents belonging to the Bnfflrrcif f„ ^L\ *T?* t^e
't had prescribed for about «!vpn 1, j i^^c! ''"* ^oug*"
patients, all of them onfy sLhtTailto» JTl f'^'^l ""t"
occupying its wards. '"Bn^X aumg. it had no British
of these were doS? r^^nfe^t woV'^^r ' ^^^ '■ «»"«
officials of the vervhirfi^tn^, .J 'f^ ''^" staffed by
there were othl^ W^SL j^t " """^ u^"""fi'=ations ; but
able could not be C™^tere r„t M^"'' ^''^°'"-
^uch as cannot be written ^wranT?L'''2j'^"« ^"""dals
were of a kind that ought never to hav^ ^ "^"'^^ °^ «"»«'
Il'l'li;
260 REMINISCENCES OF THREE CAMPAIGNS
bringing the name of Britain into disrepute. The comments
to which I had to Ibten concerning them in some of the caffa
in the country were most unpleasant, and I fear they were
mostly true. . •^. ..u o i.-
I was, on the other hand, much pleased with the Serbian
hospitals proper, and formed a high opinion of their medical
military officers. The buildings which I saw used as hos-
pitals were extremely suitable ; the wards well kept ; and the
operative work equal to that in any other civilised country.
A very large proportion of the patients on the surgical side
were suflering from frost gangrene as the result of tyvhus
fever. It was exceedingly common in those who had suflered
from the fever, and all degrees of it, from minor congelations
to mortification of considerable portions of the extremities,
were to be met with. Conservative treatment, with avo'd-
ance of premature operation, was the most successful method,
and was the one generally practised.
As is commonly the practice in many contmentol hospitals,
the dressings were not changed in the wards, but the patients
were brought, on stretchers when necessary, into the large
dressing hall, where a numerous stafl of skilful and humane
surgeons awaited them, aided by a body of efficient nursing
sisters, and there, with abundance of the best and most
modem materials, and with every other appliance, the dress-
ings were removed, the injuries attended to, and when fresh
dressings had been applied the patients were reconveyed to
their wards. Open air for the patients played a large part
in their r^me. I had an opportunity in many instances
of privately conversing with several of these sufferers, some
of whom were men of position, such as university professors,
and their appreciation of the care which was bestowed upon
them and the skill and humanity of their attendants stiU
further enhanced the high estimate I had formed of the Serbian
Army Medical Department.
I left Serbia before the Great Retreat began, and hence
missed that experience.
PART FOURTH
ITALY
LVII
The First Bsitish Ambulance Unit foe Italy
w™and^Zf?r**'".''"r^ """^it''" connected with the
flS^ish W mSs^ obtain permission to serve in the
'me Of nuhtary operations on any of the fighting feonte.
k
ii I
l")
262 REMINISCENCES OF THREE CAMPAIGNS
The Ambulance Department was uni.er Mr. G. M. Trevelyan,
and Lid a large fleet of ambulance and other cars, with en-
gineering and other workshops for repairing and maintaining
them. The hospital department was in charge of Dr. G. S.
Brock, a well-known physician from Rome. Mr. Trevelyan
wus styled the ' Commandante,' and Dr. Brock the ' Direttore.'
It is rather important to note that it was Mr. Trevelyan who
was in official command of the whole, and was responsible
for all decisions affecting the management and policy of the
combined unit.
The hospital possessed good wards, some indeed excellent,
others extemporised out "* granary and annexes, and these
latter were less good, ' very well adapted, considering
their unavoidable defects of construction. The pharmacy
was run by an Italian pharmacist officer. There was a good
X-ray installation, which at the time of my arrival was
inadequately housed, but later on I had a special building
constructed for it.
The Villa Trento Hospital was situated at ten minutes'
walking distance from the foot-hills of the Alps, on the level
plain beneath them, amid gardens and grounds laid out in
Italian style, with many beautiful and rare trees, but was
swampy and cut up by sluggish watercourses and ditches,
so that it was not in a salubrious locality. It possessed,
however, a good water supply, recently introduced, from an
aqueduct that descended from the hills ; though this was not
always to be relied on or sufficient, and had to be supplemented
by pumped-up subsoil water, the consequence being that
dysenteric and intestinal troubles were somewhat rife, par-
ticularly among new-comers, who all suffered until they had
become acclimatised.
The unit consisted of some fifty members, about a fourth
of whom were women, and besides these there was a large
staff of Italian orderlies, washerwomtn, cooks, and general
servants. The members, who were almost all young and
British, did the responsible work, driving and cleaning the
cars, doing repairs, carrying on the office work, and only
one or two of the men were occupied in connection with the
wards. Most of the men were gentlemen of education, who
for one cause or another, such as medical rejection, Quakerism,
conscientious objections, and the like, had been exempted
from military service at home. One or two were over the
military age, others were of Colonial birth, and there was a
Belgian student of medicine who had been wounded in the wMr
in Flanders. The unit had been at first largely recruited from
the Quaker persuasion, and the fine clement which this hiiii
f I
ITALY
--63
introduced pervaded the whole, so that it embraced a picked
Bet of active, fearless, dean-minded, bright feUows with
stt^^ 'ln7' " P"^'"" *° •"^^ "^ O"' Thfwom rofflcTaL
^wLi S^^"""'" r" " well-trained, well-educated, well
behaved body, nearly all of whom wer. ladies of staSn and
culture whose conduct entitled one to be p^ud of them and
the nation to which they belonged.
In the hospital I found every one busy, ooine about his or
her work and making duty the sole objw^ There lere of
course «>metimes incompatibles among them, but t^e^ were
weU and firmly handled by Dr. Breck and Jfr. Trevef^n
No horses or mules were kept; all transport was done bv
motor ambulances or cars, and, from the hard work Lse
ms mtT"' '""*.*'•' ''°* '"'» ^*"ted in September
From the nearest of the foot-hills, behind the hosoital
the present and recent battle-fields we^ to be seen spS o^t
byThm^'burtL'iL' town of Goritzia being howerhiddcu
Dy a nm, but the raountams and the trenches upon them
for possession of which the contest was then beiSg wae^'
l'^J'?'''\"°"°''' '^^ caterpillar-like captTve ins for
observation hung m a chain romid a third of the circumference
extendmg from north-east t» south; and everywhere were
fc^ss 'treXn TtK°' "V™^ '"^ niilitaryTorks! wwS
Wtween Udme and Gontzia. poured eternally trains of miUtarv
wagons, ambu ances, bodies of horse and foot, greaTgun^
^d brXf labourers going forwards to make new S
and bridges, and repair old ones. The road-makine was
well-s^ed, hard, macadamised roads, which they conceal J
iXf^K '"T^ ' T^ ^y ""*"»' '"^'' natu™7eWat1^nt
o?^s t tW ""' °^«*ead screens of brushwood and mat
tivH^f;^ M»nv" ^"1™""'"°°^ *«"t fo"vard in compara-
of th? 4^;,- L!?f ^^^ ""^^ "^'^ ^*'" w'thin easy range
™ft „ "• '"*'"^'^' ""'' ""^^'y "^^^ night their air-
craft were commg over and dropping strings of bombs on
On the day of my amval there was a heavy bombardment
going on for some 90° round us, from Az. nTsO" K, to Az S
16 E., and at rightfall two aeroplanes dropped a series of
Sdi^Lnl^'™"'*"^*''P"*"*^''"^'°^»"-<»*M^^^^^^
home, and settled down to work. I gradually nJde the
K
■I I
I* 'i
*
264 REMINISCENCES OF THREE CAMPAIGNS
acquaintance of the leading medical and other military Italian
officers, and found them most friendly ; they proved me
with a pass enabling me to go everywhere within the zone of
war, a privilege of which I availed myself to the utmost
possil le extent, so as to familiarise myself with everything
concerning the medical arrangements, and incidentally with
much else that was of interest.
The relations between the British and Italians were marked
by sincere cordiality ; the heads of departments were generous
in conceding every facility asked from them, and a constant
interchange of visits and courtesies went on with always in-
creasing appreciation on both sides. There was a certain
amount of hospitality exercise >y the ladies whn presided
over the household departmen. and Italian offlccT^:.. both
medical and military, were constantly dropping in, fiven
without invitation, to luncheon or dinner or to spend an hcur
or two in the evening ; and to such Italians as had not travelled
in Britain or the United States, it was soon perceptible that
the way in which our young men and women hved in the same
buildings, and engaged in the same work, in unrestricted
intercourse, like a family of brothers and sisters, and without
a single breath of scandal, was a new experience, and an object
lesson which they were not likely ever to forget. The part
played by the unit in cementing the mutual relations of
friendship and respect was one of its most important functions,
affecting as it did both the upper and lower classes of our
allies. Of the influence of the hospital section of the unit,
and of its purely professional side, on the soldiery of the
Italians, I may have to say something later.
We had, at different times, two most admirable Italian
medical officers attached to our imit. Major de L and
Captain V , both of whom gained the esteem of all who
knew them.
Lvm
GoBiTziA (Austrian G6bz)
It was not long before I had an oriportunity of using my free
pass — ^which as a matter of fact was seldom asked for, since
the British uniform was itself a passport everywhere in
Northern Italy — in order to visit Goritzia, and s< e the work
which the ambulance section of our unit was uoing there.
I may mention that, when the city was captured by the
Italians, uurs were the first ambulances to enter, and they
obtained high credit from the Italian staff for having done so.
One day in September, after operations and ward visit were
ITALY
a6s
The last three of theJ»™^ ?"?* °' *•»* ^"'^ Rj^"-
after its Srthquak?' '^ """'""' '''^* ^ '^'^ " ^^^
much reply **'' *""' *•« Austnans were making
west and north byTSi^ ^JLd W i^ 71^ ''"""'^ ''" **"=
Podannt PM™ u *' , P' oog-oacked range cal ed the
entrenehmeX^erfes and^^M ""^ ""*" " '"''y^*^ "^
t^e rCS r" ^"^'^ ' <^^^^^
shock Xh.^^- " °"! s ears were almost burst by the
I,T
Mi;
a66 REMINISCENCES OF THREE CAMPAIGNS
of wooden beami, and both to right and left a hand-rail
facilitated the asce > in the darkness. At intervals a unall
wooden hatch in t „e ruof admitted a feeble light into these
couloin, which were iibuut Ave feet bruad and seven high,
and which possessed at very long intervals lateral exits
giving on to the mountain side. There were many such
stairways and tunnels, all of which osrendcd the hill to the
residences of the soldiers defending the trenches that crowned
the top and the gun eniijlacements which also studded the
crest. In addition to these underground passages there were
also well-graded open roads, along which led great electric
cables and telegraph and telephone wires, running obliquely
up the hill and defended by entanglements of barbed wire
so well placed that it was a matter of difficulty, half destroyed
as they v/ere, to force a way through them. The upper end
of the tunnels brought us to three or four burrow-like apart-
ments, one of them containing beiths like a steeping car;
another was an electricity r'xjm with switch-board and trans-
former for the currents v/hicn had been sent up from Goritiia
by the great cables ; and a third was the mess-room with a
table for meals, and three stout metol pots, eight by thirty
inches in size, in which food was cooked by electricity. There
was electric lighting everywhere in the apartments, and along
the tunnels were many notice boords with directions, especi-
ally ' Zur Kiiche,' affixed at the needful places. All these
labyrinthine defences had been left untouched since they
came into the hand;: of the Italians.
Between the ridge and Goritzir. ran .ne Isonzo River, which
came pouring down through the Alps in a series of gorges
deep and narrow, leaving room beside it only for a single
slender road and the railway from Klagenfurt, which latter
had to twist over bridges and through tunnels to find a
precarious way ; and at the place where the river escaped
on the opening plain the "-raall town of Goritzia was built.
Before the war it must have been a very pretty townlet,
with its old-woiH castle upon a rock in its centre, and beneath
it groups of houses ind squares with trees and public gardens,
forming a lovely summer resort, and a spot where retired
Austrian officers and others lovpd to take up their abode.
But as I saw it, it was crumbling under shell fire ; hardly a
house was undamaged, and many were in ruins ; one or
two tiny shops were open for petty trade, with their iron blinds
drawn down ; and the names upon the signboards above
were all Slav or Slovene. Not a single woman or child was
visible in the streets. The intensity of the bombardment
it had imdergone was shown by the fact that rot one street
1:1 i
ITALY
ttn
Ump was left unbti.t or unbroken, while the ho -se. were .11
^w .i. I^ "'""'' *•"" "'■" ">■'"« hurtling through the aS
? h1^ > «"'r "'"^ "^"""f "'"1 ""^hi"!. but u? th" tinT,;
wa« con mg apparently fron, the summits of S.in Ma™.
San Damele, San Gabriele. und perhaps from Mo.^e Santo a
range of mountains higher tha, yC^hur's Seat, which overt u'n^
the town at a d.stanc-e of a mile or two, like a pack of "oTv«
^^^ ^ ** vomitmg cannon shot. The town and girdens
around it were a network of trenches, wire entanglimenU
and emplacements for machine gnns, with frequent^Lmates
or concealments for the greater guns. "^"""^ casemates
Hud It :.ot been for the noise of the firing, my first impression
of Gor.tz,a would have been that I was l^king^n aloTand
^rTV^Z'u"^'^' '«'"««' ""P'y ""d abandoned, s^^
fn o,L A .If* K^ "TL ^* '='*''*"''" °"« " feeling o?^^
m our Allies when it became apparent that there had Wn
no lootmg o: breaking into the Kses, as was b=7ng7onV!n
»tswruS''Ti**^''''=^r"''"^-''"'^ '»•"* the*i„S
The bridges over the Isonzo had all been destrov<>H h„t
::^elfZ^^.'"''"V;^ P""*-- or trese7hth.'rn'
^nVf f! u "L« carefully screened from the enemy, were
fromTLl'"^ ^""^""^ "'■ ^'''"'y'" "y '"^ Austr^n^S:
wh^' Tch^^T, department haa two stations in the town.
Where a cheerful and courageous company of some fifteen
drivers were assembled, and where by dky or n ghtThev were
wo* d^'fCtVe*:.' "" ^^^"^ ^ «° °"* anf pickVt^"
hn.^; 1 /? ' dressing stations and convey them to the
aSlmn. ' 'T /'l'^ ^"^ themselves, as time went o„
but I^n nnfr.. i'tt'*''"' ^^^y •»"'<* "^^^ fo""d shelter
but I do not think they ever troubled to use it, and I never
Wn """i'f }^ ^^^"'- «='''" «hen the builoi^g which hTd
been assigned to them in the middle of the town by the Italians
and m which they lived , d slept, was later shattered by
ni!hf 'k*°u t""'' °^ ^^" """"^"^ "•'verely wounded. iT one
n^ht which I, pe..it there I counted the fr^uency^ he firin/
^ttT^ ^' 'Y"^ ^'"= ""'y °"'' twc^and three seS
between -ch explosion, on rare occasions nine seconds, a^
IfV^ kT -^ '"tr"' °^ ^^-*^n secoids, ever^- one
'
I'""
I* I
i
a«8 REMINISCENCES OF THREE CAMPAIGNS
LIX
The Isonzo Rivcb Bakbim
At the time of my joining the Italian AmbuUnee, the following
wa« the pofition of the campaign. Italy wai the only one
of the Entente Power* who had lucceeded in getting foot
acTou the borden of the Central Powen, with exception of
a small part of Alnce which had been captured by the French
under General Joltre at the outbreak of hostilitiet ; and
Goritsia wai the only city of capital importance which had
been taken firom the enemy.
Italy wa« by fierce fighting overrunning the Austrian
provinces of Gdrz and Gradisca which beloi^ed to Austria,
and of which Goritzia (Gdrz) was the chief town ; and the
Italian nation and armies were much elated by the
feat which had gained for them a part of the hitherto Un-
redeemed Italy (Italia Irredenta). It was an important
thing to have done, particularly at a time when things were
going rather unhupefully for the Entente Allies, and in a
region, as I shall presently show, which was one of the most
difficult for an assailant.
Having progressed so far, however, Italy was faced by
almost insurmountable obstacles. On their left, and in front,
extended the high, snow-clad Camlc and Julian Alps, prac-
tically unscalable, pierced only by the railway coming
tluough a narrow portal from Klagenfurt in Austrian Car-
inthia ; and where the mountains terminate near the Adriatic,
on the right of thi Italian front, there lay the d^'^cult region
of the Carso, a sterile undulating plateau, ian~iy inhabited,
waterless, almost roadless, pieced by numberless caverns
and ' doline,' which offered the defenders immense advantages.
Beyond the Carso, however, were the coveted province of
Istria and the city of Triest;, almost purely Italian, and
acknowledged parts of Italia Irredenta, and all the aspirations
of the army and nation were turned to the conquest of these.
The most hopeful line of further advance therefore lay over
the Carso, extending from south of Goritzia, beyond the
Isonzo River. Moreover, the upper part of the enemy's
position, corrcbponding with the ravine of the Isonzo and
running along the foot of the Alpine range, was far more
difficult to assail than the portion south of Goritzia, which
is only hilly, not mountainous. The expectation that they
could capture Trieste and relieve their fellow-countrymen
from the Austrian yoke was a bait which was irresistible,
and Italy was bracing itself for the endeavour.
ITALY
169
r£=SS-«:-:~,ajT
UHT of these ««ds was wondell. ^ut t'inSuit^S
• ■:'
ih-
III
if;
li
It;
rjo REMINISCENCES OF THREE CAMPAIGNS
avoid their having the sharpest turns at every few paces ;
and to meet, pass, or overtake another wheeled conveyance
at such places was an interesting experience. Imagine
having to turn on a swiftly moving motor car round such a
comer, beyond which nothing but the sky and an abyss
was visible, and coming suddenly on another motor, likely
a great baggage car, charging in the reverse direction, and
having to take the outer side on a road some fifteen feet
only in breadth, with but a foot to spare between the wheels
and the precipice, and this too at a turn of much less than
half a right angle. Such wbs the territory the Italians had
wrested from Austria, and were then holding on the Isonzo
above Goritzia, and this was the character of the Italian
front through which my journey of inspection lay. These,
moreover, were the sort of roads along which our drivers
had had to bring the wounded back, and on which, though
the enemy did not usually single out the cars for their aim,
yet there were occasions where they deliberately shelled
our ambulances upon them, while they were transporting
the wounded. Of this there was no manner of doubt.
To follow the upper course of the Isonzo through these
hills we left Goritzia in an exceptionally suitable car, for it
was not every one that would have been capable of sur-
mounting the roads, with Mr. John A , a driver who had
no nerves, or it would be better to say, whose nerves were
under perfect control, on a morning which could not be
termed fine, for the clouds overhead were in many strata,
but which yet promised to develop into a fairly dry day
without much wind beyond a cold breeze blowing oft the
snow on the Alps to the north, and with just that amount
of haze in the atmosphere which shows off the mountain
distances so well. Matters that morning were quiet in
Goritzia, for while one or two of the Austrian guns were
speaking out, there were but stray replies from the Italian
side.
As we crossed the river on one of the frail bridges, it was
impossible to avoid being struck by the aspect of the Podgora
Ridge abeady mentioned, which lay as a mass of fortifica-
tions opposite the city on the western bank, dominating
the crossings and commanding every foot of the town. It
recalled the position of the Janiculum at Rome, inasmuch
as it was the bulwark of Goritzia, and after it had been taken
by the Italians, nothing could have saved the town. Its
capture was an affair of the utmost bravery, since it bristled
with artillery and riflemen in concealed batteries and trenches,
while the Italians were in the open and their artillery was not
ITALY
*7i
As we rounded the north-eastern end of the ridge towairfs
OslaviB, the fierceness of the strumle was ^aJ^^
there being no house left which ^f tot TrruM^.'^aTle^
ZtZ ^"^ r'Vt"-'*'^' "^^ «>««= '"'^ not a sbgleTr^
but was broken ofi by the artillerv fiiv fr«.« " >"igie tree
the one hand and Sa^ FIorr„S7he^ea^q"a&? th^
Italians at that time, on the other San r]nr^^^vZ.
pbteau whereon it lies; there for a long time X Cli»n!
advancmg towards the Podgora were held T check The
carimge dunng the fighting there had been gre^t, l„d to Jke
matters worse cholera broke out. Our ambulan.^ wJ^nZ^!
Tl^^' ^'*""' '^' '=''°'«'» Patien" in t^ir 'S
^J^^ '^t ""^ sometimes even fell dead as thev
succeeded m gaming a place in them. Into oneTf oV^l
mne men entered and were driven off, but when th^y a" JvJ^
oLl^n' ardritet^LTlJ^runrhn "^l"^^
a^up of eighteen S^.?d^'iLTct^rwKr
had been overlooked. He was only a younc bov bi.f nf h!= ^
initiative he tackled the situationVand byS^ LulZ"
All of these and similar transactions were carried out uX^
heavy fire; and the Italians gave the detacSient a S
of honour m recognition of its work • it was h»i,1 t^ 7. u
^^r^Tf I""''' '*' -^^ ** -- eveZa'Sfg^erL"':
Commandant, who was present through it aU
o^SvL" ^'"^P'ace we meandered downwards into vallevs
and then agam ascended to Quisca, which at an ^li^ S
of the same struggle had been the station of one ofW ambS
lance sections. Quisca lies on the western slope of tte^";
ndge which overhangs the right bank of the IsX and S
tself somewhat sheltered from the Austrian art ilSy' when
the fight was going on. had the drawback that thel^undS
could be conveyed away from it only by an exnosed rn«H
runnmg north-westwanls, which was perfectV^bfe ^
the Austrian batteries, and Mr. Y— 1- who h^H ll. •
meT "i ''"'^'^- "-^''^'--"^ at the' tTme, ^eLtS t"
Zy7X''"^ *° "*r '^' *'=™'* '^''"- lookingTv^ the
valley at his <«rs as they passed along the road above for
the distance of about half a mile, an easy mark foTthI
Austrian gunners, who followed each car with hXe^Tos ve
372 REMINISCENCES OF THREE CAMPAIGNS
shells. Wonderful to say, they all came through the storm
in safety.
To get a better idea of the positions which the two com-
batants were occupyin<;, we Uft the car a little beyond
Quisca and climbed the ridge, so as to look down on the
Austrian positions, the aquamarine coloured Isonzo flowing
in front of them, and the Italian lines on its hither side.
The Monte Sabotino, whose name had been in every mouth
at a certain stage of the struggle, lay before us to the south,
and was an impressive sight. It lay on the western bank of
the river, shaped like a great wave advancing &om Italy
and breaking on the bank of the stream, for towards Italy,
where it was seamed by lines of trenches, it rose in a gradual
bare slope which the Italian troops bad had to storm, and
on the other side was so steeply scarped as to be precipitous,
even overhanging shell-like as it descended to the river.
Its capture was costly in lives, but once its slope had been
stormed the rest was easy, and it now formed a valuable
position &om which to reply to the artillery of the enemy.
For the rest of the way we held a course along the ridge,
and, looking backwards on the confusion of hills and valleys
which I have endeavoured to describe, it required no special
military knowledge to realise what a difficult country it was
trom which to have driven the Austrians, as almost every
mile of it was a natural, nearly impregnable fortress had
it been properly prepared and defended. It gave one a
full sense of the bravery of the Italian soldiers, and the
marvellous feat they had performed in overrunning that
contorted territory. Our route plunged us into a vortex
of tortuous roads, ridges, valleys, and corrugations, along
ways and tracks with steep gradients, overhanging almost
precipitous slopes, with hairpin turns and ' Devil's elbows '
in abundance, and always on our right hand stood the ranges
of great guns, one at about every hundred yards, covered
by turf-roofed sheds to conceal them from the Austrian
batteries and aircraft, though easily visible &om the rear
where we were passing them. Behind and among the guns
were interminable trenches, and wire entanglements forty
or fifty yards in breadth, with covered ways leading towards
them from our road, approached often by covered stairways.
Everything possible had been done to render these defences
invisible from above and trom the front.
The men who manned the batteries and trenches on the
crest of the ridge lived among the clifis and precipices, some
in burrows holk>wed out like sand-martins' nests in the soft
rock, and some in wooden structiires resembling bird cages
ITALY
273
ladders or stairs. PeeoL^V^ \h ^^ 7^^"^ '*°«'«n
towards Austria Zi^vZVt? '^8' °^ **"= "'^K* here
little town of Tohnl^n %^J^'°* "' °" *•>« ">'«' the
Austrian. "'"°' ''''"* ''"^ "«" held by the
ele^dol^rlt'trJrtw'^/^ir^ *° ■''""y" higher
the Alps, a^ we ZsLi W^h "'^ ^^""=1 *" ^l^' north into
count.?;p"„e^tK t^e «^-?*'°"°f *"'*' "*° " ""''«»
of mist which had for some ^nn» ^^ "'*° " '^*"^"' ^*'»t«'n
in a^ey ^Unl^S, b^ ^''*' °,°, '^"°">-'t '"^t itsTlf
^.iuM ^A^ ?c* ^.£r^ ;c-i
I r
(^
i
274 REMINISCENCES OF THREE CAMPAIGNS
Luico, and another, a little farther off, our destination,
Caporetto.
Now began the descent. With every brake hard on,
down mile after mile of a most winding road, so steep that
we had the sensation of diving, while the Italian Alpini
regiments who passed us going up, carrying their batteries
of mountain guns in pieces on their backs, seemed to be a
picturesque feather-plumed group floating upwards past us
as in an elevator. We had our mishaps — ^burst a tyre at one
nasty place, and at another the car skidded backwards with
us at an uncommonly sharp turn and fortunately ran us
into a bank in ^^afety, but we had all to jump out, prop the
wheels with stones, and set our shoulders to the body till
we had got it to resume a position of safety in the right
direction.
We eventually reached the bottom where, as in all these
Alpine valleys, the ground was flat, passed through the un-
interesting hamlet of Luico, and a turn in the narrow den
farther on brought us to Caporetto.
We had thus been along the whole of the Austro-Italian
front north ofGoritzia, as far as there was any, or the possibility
of any, activity eventuating, and our whole course had been
in wlmt formerly was Austrian territory. The chief impres-
sion which one carried away was that the whole of that part
of the line of the Isonzo was now so strongly fortified by
nature aud art that it would be a hard task indeed for
Austria to reconquer it by a frontal attack.
Caporetto was one of the most charming Alpine villages
I had ever seen, and recalled the pictures of Innsbruck in
the Tirol. On its western side the Isonzo came boiling out
of a chink in the Alps into a flat -bottomed pit perhaps a
quarter of a mile broad, and on the flat Caporetto was built,
its crowded houses and winding streetlets speaking of want
of space to expand. As one looked up, the mountains were
seen towering above it on all sides ; to the south that one
which we had just crossed reared its rounded head 3000 feet
into the air, and on the north the Monte Nero (Slavonic,
Monte Km), 7500 feet high, had its snow-white top almost
concealed by an upper layer of cloud, while on the other
sides lower hills overhung the town so near that a land-
sUp from them would have buried the whole place, and
one instinctively thought of the likelihood of such a
fetaUty.
We were received ac our ambulance station by Messrs.
R T , and O , the two men in charge, who thawed
and fed us and told about the nature of their work. They
ITALY
975
'5
and fonned the ktmoSe/ette o^e Tl ""-"8 "bout
^vage scenery. Yet I adml ^hlv' °i* **** '"1°^ such
«>ad by which w7were to rehi^ rr'v??"^"'^''*^*
tYitwasagoodand^syone *° ''^ ^'''» ^rento, and
the^so^thi'S;"?.^^ cZXTo r""^^',"'^?!' '^"-l** to
the Isonzo may onTe Ce Sl^ ^^''f^^t'- °°*" ^^^ «='="
had been elevat^ 'or blocked tt « '*' ''^'^ *« '»"«*
another river nam^ th-. m !?•' . <=anyon now catches
our road k!^' "^^ a fcwlir"' "^^'^^^ '»"'"' "^ "^ich
glen, its naLw strh, of WtoS a?n,o t ^* y^e entered the
the steep slopins Xs „nwT.^°'*.u""''^'"« "^'"een
clothed them When f; S^^^°?.t '"*'' ^^ "'•^s that
of thrcanZ.' a^the^^ *»u ^""i^'ne AH^ the who^e
along the C o/tht s^e^U ^f"" '^"^^ " ""^^ '"'y
as there is not room fo^Un Kttem ^ v T*^ '»"''•
than 200 yards across ThP ^„ ^^ '''"** '« °°t more
^'Kei^* - 9<^^ a„T?;^^r rhat*s:id^^^ °^
eve''^ tdrw^rrbv'ir"t"^« '•-''Sily hid
Cividar^From th^ onwLS^ we Z" T "^"^ *'«'"8h
blindfold, all lights ^ingforbidde?.^ k *^P^ "•" ""y
main road between ^>,J? j ttJ? ** *^"' "« struek the
with me^ h^B^r nSlf^r'* ™"«=' ^« fowd ^ choked
slow and ofteTikt^^ot^"'' uT''^' «* *^t P^-gress was
collision. Mterrupted. But all passed off without a
front was enorCst fortifl^ tt^^^' "i"'" ^"^ ^»»«'
which it appeared no v^ f J^*' ftr S!">'=^ '*°°^ tJ«'"8h
so turn the whole ItalianTosS?^ r . '^ *^ Penetrate and
this proved to b^ tKak part of tX7 •","*' """"^"^
which an energetic anJmpid tl^st^n t^'"'"i"^'' "^"8''
trians deprived Italv of th^ J,^ r ". *¥ P"* °^ *h« Aus-
quests, aSd drove rtWkwlh" "^ '*' ^^'^^ '^"8''t «»n-
376 REMINISCENCES OF THREE CAMPAIGNS
but I have often wondered since whether Gineral Cadoma,
in the desire to push on south of Goritzia so as to capture
Trieste, did not overlook the weakness of the Caporetto
position, towards which it was comparatively easy for the
enemy, holding a good railway approach to it, to convey
quickly and unexp^edly a strong attacking force.
lr!i
III
I
'11
I
LX
The Italian Base Hospitals
I VISITED a good nimiber of the base and other hospitals in
the Italian war zone, and a few sketches of their condition
may be acceptable to medical readers.
The largest was the * Ospedale Contumaciale ' at Udine.
The term ' splendid ' was the best to apply to this fine in-
stitution, adapted from a great cavalry bcuTOcks through the
energy of General Santucci, the principal medical officer of
the 6th Italian Army Corps, and those under him. It was
perfectly clean, very spacious, and had accommodation for
over 2000 patients. The walls, roofs, and floors were white
as snow, and the bedding and ward furnishings were admir-
able. Electric lighting was everywhere. The radiography
department was of the finest ; there was shown me a new
and most ingenious localisation apparatus on an entirely
new principle by Signor Baese, a Milanese engineer.
Another hospital not far distant, designated 'No. 0.22,'
had been converted from a villa residence not unlike our
Villa Trento, and was under the charge of Dr. Camera, who
advocated an efficient and very radical treatment for gas
gangrene. The hospital was of course not to be compared
with the ' Contumaciale,' but was very good in its way,
with two sisters, luale nurses, and a staff of efficient surgeons
and physicians. The baths would have been considered
defective on an English standard, but they met the more
modest needs of tLe Italian soldiers.
On another occttsion I accompanied Major Andreini to
see his extemporised ' Ospedale, No. 228,' which had been
formed out of a villa at Premariaco, about an hour's drive
to the north of the Villa Trento, and was received most
courteously by his officers, who showed me over everything,
down to the smallest details. Though inferior to a specially
constructed hospital, it was nevertheless very good and
practical, even to the provision of a store of tents in case
expansion or removal were necessary. All essentials had
been foreseen and provided, and every possible drawback
ITALY
277
never smokeJIn fhTh -i^' ^I'° '''^ °®~" » command
nificent work Ti ».o . • ^^ showed us some mag-
head chls" and Vw P""^' ''"'P**"' ^°' '°j™es to the
town, 'No O TO^i^d^* """*''" ^?'P'^^ •" the same
question to ae^^'urieo^V^^riM C" "C^*
mortalitvas 1000/ ;„?kj '".'^g* 01 «, and he gave his
62% inTho^'^JeS'^itrotS'' ''P*"*'^' °"' ''«''-*
whttdTernli^ed^'upX^Te fc^ed^^ " t^^'
which I «nH „ t^^^A? j' ilntish Red Cross Society.
for show than anythfag ell^^,' i,« ''u*' ^^^ ^P."'"'*
278 REMINISCENCES OF THREE CAMPAIGNS
annexes and through every corner of the eitablishmsnt.
Its kernel was a smell school building, with additional
wooden barracks, and a group of canvas tents, in a small
village destitute of almost any resources, and its title was
'Ospedale di Campo, No. 216.' There were two sisters
employed in it, both belonging to the Italian Red Cross,
of whom one was Signorina Italia Garibaldi, daughter of
Ricciotto Garibaldi, and granddaughter of Giuseppe Gari-
baldi, the Liberator of Italy. Signorina Garibaldi was a
fitting coadjutor to the energetic medical officers. She and
her comrade managed the nursing of the 800 patients it
contained in a way that words are inadequate to express,
and many of their patients were bad surgical cases. It was
most touching. In the wards these iwo women bad only
two — I think that later th-.-y obtained six — basins in which to
wash those multitudes, and they were asking as a favour
for some more. There were no bathrooms ; only the usual
Italian closets, which however were clean and kept as well
as wa!> possible. The patients in the wards were sleeping
on stray: stuffed into mattress bags, and there were no pillows
beyond those which they had themselves extemporised.
Beyond the beds there was almost nothing in the wards,
only a long central table, with one large Florence oil-flask
which supplied the drinking water fir all. Each patient
had one metal cup which served him for everything — for
food, for drink, etc. There were no invalid appliances
except the temperature charts, which hung on the walls
and were well kept. The wards in short were bare except
for the charts, beds, table, an^' Florence flask, and what else
the patients brought with them from the field. For the whole
there were four copper bed-pans. One found it difficult to
draw even a feeble mental picture of what these two ladies
had to do in the way of attending to so many sick and wounded
men with such inadequate means, but somehow — God knows
how — ^they did it well. They had none to relieve them, no
night nurses, only male orderlies, and they themselves had
to sleep in a place some hundreds of yards distant, and to
get their meals in a shabby little eating booth near at hand.
Those who know the ways of male orderlies can perhaps
imagine the tasks which the two ladies had to discharge.
In common with all Italian Red Cross Sisters, the two ladies
had to be clothed entirely in white, even to their shoes and
stockings ; in these they had to wade through the wet and mud
when it rained, and neither the rain nor the mud on the
Venetian plains is a thing to be made light of. The cooking
for the hospital was carried out in what had been, and in
ITALY
lir
»7V
•ppearance still was, a blacksmith's smithy, in two m Br«f
S^J'^erT*'^'" the food and whici;' l"^ h//i,''~i
camea over to the wards e ghty yaids awav »K.» fK-
food was Udled out into the S,ldU' cups^^he^ w"s no
poMibility of invalid foods or special diet. The ^k slen?
^smjthy under the benchWh ser;ed for Tkit^S^
dlT^An T.V °Pf^*'°° «»™ "«» " »»re closet, ^ell lirby
5!.i rt. ^«'* common basin, ^ssibly two, a common
o^for ''\''"^' «"y ««ri'i«'J;°' instruments, and aTa"«r
?he fnLr*r*u'' ''"' '* """' '""""J ''"«<="" to w^rk them wkh
the spmt which was supplied. The ,t«ck of ether for an^-
wWch Z" TJ^'l- ^ i'""'' ^ •'"^^ mentioned all the th"^
which they had at my first visit, and where I have not namS
an^hmg ,t may be held as having been abs^^ Yet "S
good work was bemg done in that hospital by these pTd
Z^ K . !!!!"!" '"*•' *•"> "'*'"'* °f applUn,is. I w^at
t^ Utt^r"^!-*^"," ~">P?»i°" •'nd admiration, buTLfn
the latter feehng replaced all else, particularly when I mm-
s'hr ji^t':''''*^ '''•"=•> •»" »-" «*«i "p 'xpTn'sLVx
I must mention one more of the ordinary base hosoitaU
vS;:'l?.Z*f w*^"" '^^^''^ througHur handsT^he
h.™ tH i'" f^ '^•'°^ treatment seemed to me to
hrve been conducted with much skill and hP.jtlihood, and on
^ /o6"^"f'^"- ^ ^°""i ?"y '»'"'' ^«"" » hospital s"yl^
li^^;jj. ?**!'«=»' /nd that the surgeon there was Captain
at Home. I telegraphed to him and found that he was still
7^ ,*""' ?"'' '■""''^ '^«=1<»"'« "^ visit frSm me I
accordingly spent most of the 27th of February with him
??.e f :"""* ,"jr '^ ^'~"' *''« -hole of his wo^and system:
The ^sence of them was as follows : Immediately a woundS
man was admitted, his wounds were laid open by lonffitudinTl
mcjsions s« to ten inches in length (JbridJJ^.^^Z.
and all that was infected or crushed clipped away by scissoK
Wrr'' ^'"« '^'^P""^ "S''* througg^the limb to'^a^S;
^^^,^ "w"°P?u"8 ,"." *' "PP"^'*' «id«- Only sound
stouctures bemg thus left, the great wounds were plugged
w^th gauze soaked m eusol, left unsecured by sutures fnd
widely open and the part supported by pkster of Paris
ffi' wtu tVr ^"-l,.^- ,t»« tost few^ ,^ys the wound
looked well and the patient's temperature fell But the
JhwS.Ttb^^*" '"^ " ''°™' *° '-•^ «t A^ut t£e
third day the enormous wounds in the broken flaccid limb
'
a8o REMINISCENCES OF THREE CAMPAIGNS
were retracted by large steel koolu whoM iharp poinU were
dug into the living fleih, the plugi were drawn out, the iciHon
again uied to clip off all luipicMUi parti, the phigi of etuol
gauie again drawn through and packed in, no drain* being
Uied and no lutureg to narrow the openings, and 'he denuded
neui and muscles left to protrude and consolidate into great
cicatrices, which might perhaps much impair the subsequent
functions of the limb. These dressings were done without
the use of an anesthetic, but I must add that they did not
seem to cause the patients much pain, or were at any rate
most uncomplainingly supported. The after management of
Captain Baggio's cases which came into the ViU Trento
gave us much trouble; and, owing to the great siie and the
situation of the debridement openings, and the flaccidity
of the limbs at the site of ftecture, their evacuation to other
hospitels down country was attended in the graver cases
with extreme difBcukies. I rather think that we obtained
equally good if not better results witU more conservative
measures, while the patients were spared much suffering
and the functions of the limbs rather better conserved. But
Bagpo's surgery was certainly brilliant, and was generally
speakmg the type ol the surgery of the younger ItalUn
operators.
At the risk of beiug tedious I shall add a word or two
about the hospitals for special cases in the Italian war mne.
So far as care and foresight could provide special fomiu of
toeatment, luly had done well by its soldiers. The ' Ospcdale
Marco Volpe' in Udine, for instance, wac an institution
5"*"«ly fo' ii .'iries to the jaws, under Major Pema and Dr.
Webb, an American dental surgeon ftom Rome, and had at
least severtl hundred beds. Some very good work was being
done there in restoring and replacing defects of the jaws,
but from the absence of women nurses the mouths of the
patients and the appliances employed to flx the jaws were
in a state of uncleanness which contrasted badly with
similar cases which I saw treated in our British hospitals at
home.
I^ the ' No. 4 • Italian Red Cross Hospital in Manzano,
CapUm Pipemo, an eminent dentist from Rome, who among
other qualifications had studied his science in the United
States, had a small out-patient clinic for attention to the
dentistry of such soldiers as were able to walk, and verv fine
work was being done there, quite equal to high-class 'work
at home ; and in Caporetto too I found a surprisingly good
dental station for the troops in the front lines. In these
dental duucs there was almost no extraction done; all treat-
ITALY
a8i
iriyCtJ:° """"" "«• terth unl«. thqr w« .b«.
Hi.^i?!L^*'"^ ^y ^•**^ P'tatod initruetiont wen
iittabuted among tlw loldien «. to how to p.*ct21 IdJ
From the above ihort outlines it will he ■««. »k.» u
.mpoMible to form other thUS . v;S"wJh^i,S^* of ThJ
been conceived, and there wa. a marked aSenc-ofThe^
Upe and circumlocution which clinTT 'Sy I ouihS
IriS .^ "'LT"** ""t^*" '="^) to oJrown Wr Sffl^
wth lu „ obatinacy j thu waa pouibhr due to the fcct
W w,3.:l'i" "^i*' mcdiiTXr. of the ItaSS
Army were drawn bom the ranks of the civil nractitinn^^
♦K°°L""'* ^*'**''' '^ *•»•<=•' I Jwve already aUuded w..
JtelilS^°» r "« "'• ~'"P'*«"* women Su^"^i:v:^
Italian, man an-i woman, to whom I gpoke of this subWt
me^t^^f wo^en'"*'""'*'^"'' '" Italy^SaSlVthe^^SS:
ment ol women nurses, and even wnHcw/l *i..* _» C '
the wtperiMce ^med in the war may induce altera^M •
rr'sr^"s:s^'i„^Tei^:s]^^,^^^^
pomt of the service as I saw it ^^^ ~„ tliiii. T
options among the nursing sist^, ^'^^^^^t^ j^"
c™«H tw. J^- ■ ~ °' "'"'^ ^^°«= influence had pro-
roiS^^«n^K ^" J "'^*'">'' *''= case of one poor feUow-
coimtryman who had received extensive bums lying in one
^.S^it^^ i'T*^^ "°'*^'' ^^^ ««*' """onB others, ^f one
such attendant who was unable properly to dress his twmT,!.
m,unes or to give him the att^tS^ V 1^ ^^^^.S^
,>:
383 REMINISCENCES OF THREE CAMPAIGNS
•nd of another, wounded and amputated, lying in a imall
ward abng with two other wounded men, with no one to
■Donge and clean him, no oomforti about him, paMing a miier-
able night disturbed by the moaning of hit neighbour!, one
of whom had ain lott a limb and been otherwiie wuunded,
in deadly pain himtclf, and with the eternal roar of the heavy
artillery which wai craahing on every tide and only a few
yatdtaway. I could multiply intUncet. Yet thii wae in very
good Italian hotpitalt, where the beds were comparatively
good, with spring mattreese*, and no vermin, where tne offldala
were of the very highest class. It went to the heart of one
accustomed to the comforts with which our women nurses
can surround the injured under almost any circumstances,
to note the deficiencies which their absence occasioned under
conditions such as those.
There was one cheerful th..ig about mo* ,t the Italian
' <ase hospitals, namely, their whiteness. Whenever a building
id to be converted into a temporary hospital, the ceilings,
walls, and floors were covered with white paint ind white-
wasu, which gave an appearance of purity to the eye, even
though it might leave things little altered in reality.
I shall have something to say afterwards concerning the
dressing stations and Lazarettos of the fighting tines.
lifil
LXI
The Wtnteb Campaion or 19ie-l7
The events which happened in Italy during the year I was
there are historical, but I do not profess to give an accurate
histoTinal account of them — merely a series of recollections,
an atti inpt to set forth general impressions. In or^er that
these may be intellig.ble, I must repeat to some extent what
I have already said as to the general situation during the late
autumn and winter months.
After Italy had swept Ai stria back as r as the line of
the Isonzo, and gained possession of the town of Goritzia
with a -ouple of miles on every side of it, the barriers to
farther advance remained most formidable. Beyond the
Isonzo Austria held the (almost) inexpugnable barrier of the
Julian Alps, which extended firom the north down behind
Goritzia as a series of heights of which the most important
were Monte Kuk (Cucco), the Vodice, Monte Santo, San
Gabriele, and San Marco, the last four of which, averaging
perhaps 2000 feet in height, overhung the city at a distance
of two miles, and Goritzia could not be safe or ttte from bom-
ITALY
m
huinmA until at leut thcM four bud been eaptured. That
WM one of the heavy UU. which hy before the .rniie. of
tJ^ *«»«xl P^ ot the problem they had to deal with wai
. »'^u?^ *^?'^ *!" "'°"' """therly «pur> of the Alpi,
?h. AI«^L*?k"^ .'*" ,^S2"- "hich intervened betwJS
il^iS^ K the Ita i«n» were flxed. The Cano i. well
•r^^ ^ n" f"""" *"*" '" '*»• following temii!-
Laltoplano Canico . . * noto come un vasto pianoro
•aiioio, perfettamente arido. wtto da buche e (iveme,
qua e It ncoperto da fltte boacaRlie tutte lenia nome j pove^
Bli abiUnti. In addition to these natural diiadvantage!..
entrenchment., and riddled with faitnesiet in the shape
of cave, and 'dohne* which had long and carefully been
converted into hidden strongholds and concealed fortification..
In the autumn of IBie vast preparations were being made
-h-!'^r?"'""&'«""/*u*''^"* P'*"*'- There were many day.
when the surface of the Und was entirely hidden by trail.,
maMe., and thigment. of mist from the Alp., which them-
selve. were concealed by slabs and Ubies of cloud and piled-
up heap, of white vapour descending on the low-_r ground
airf keepmg all things soaking, when rain storms beginning
without warning ended m heavy dadies of water and si^denly
pass^ over; but whenever « rtray glimpK of sunshini
br. e through, it revealed the whole country, bom Udine
to the IsoMo, converted into a great camp, wherein flve-and-
twenty soldiers were met with for one civilian man, woman,
or child, and studded with huge dep.rts of fodder and oD-r
stores, with rows on rows of magazines of provis-ons and
material, of the army service corps, and lines in endless
T™^ u^l^ ""?, picketed horses, while behind each
eminence which eou'd be hidden ftom the enemy were the
groups of tent, of the vedettes with picturesque Uttle patrol
shelters peeping through the brushwood, and in all available
spots the wooden and other barracks of the soWicrs
. u ^ it popularly supposed to be a land of sunny skies,
where the flower of the orange blows, and fireflies dance
through the myrtle boughs,' but in that part where the cam-
paign was going on it surpassed in cold, rain, fog, and mud
anything that ig uinial in the so-called sunless England,
and the weather m which the Italians had to press their
struggle with Auctra was simply atrocious. Amid snow,
deluges of ram, thunder and lightning, the sufferings of their
i
I]
284 REMINISCENCES OF THREE CAMP^^IGNS
troops were great, inducing pneiunonias, frost-bites, gangrene
of the feet, and every species of discomfort. Yet they still
continued pressing the enemy whenever it was possible.
The elements, however, seemed to be against them, for they
had no sooner planned and entered upon an advance, than
the tempestuous days and nights frustrated and put an end
to their efforts. Their artillery would blaze up, the small
arms rattle, the ambulances be busy bringing us the wounded
into the wards whence we had been instructed to evacuate
all possible cases so as to leave room for the anticipated losses,
but the elements were usually too much antagonistic, and
the attacks had to fade out and die away for the time. Only
the determination to conquer held doggedly out. Bombard-
ment was commenced nearly every day, but generally had
to be broken off for the mist, discontinued for a time, and the
troops drawn back, considerable losses being sustained in
doing so. Again the mist would perhaps clear and the guns
would speak out furiously. I counted the number of cannon
shots, on an average 4820 per hour, many being from such
heavy artillery as to make our house shake. I filled a tumbler
with water, placed it on a chair, threw the electric light on
its surface, and watched every heavy gun's discharge shake
the water and cause it to quiver, and of such shots I counted
840 in the hour, while the smaller guns failed to agitate the
surface. Hours of such bombardment were followed by the
infantry attack, but always again the mist seemed to come
down so dense that objects a hundred yards off were in-
visible, and the fight collapsed. The wounded came streaming
back into the hospitals; in batches up to 800, Austrian
prisoners were henled along the roads ; and the Italian
losses were admittedly heavy. They sometimes lost a couple
of brigades, say 6000 men, at a time. The territory gained
was then consolidated, and a fresh opportunity awaited.
The spectacle of the bombardments was magnificent at
night. In the foreground the camions dashed along the
roads ; and beyond, the horizon on the crests of the hills
was lit up by the sparkle of the exploding shells which threw
up fountains of earth and rocks h^h into the air ; the more
prolonged glitter of the star-shells and the searchlights,
which at one time looked like a rising moon, at another
showed as a broad band of illumination, white as an aurora
borealis or tinted like the early streaks of a summer's dawn ;
the sky fringing the hills steadily glowing with the flashes of
the lesser guns, too rapid to be counted, but so clear that the
belts of leafless trees stood distinct against them now per-
fectly plain, now fading somewhat. When the greater guns
ITALY
28s
rS;<,*''w?^'"' '?'^"8 "P '*« *»>« effects of summer
I^Mnmg, but the regularity and rhythm neoativ«1 tH^i^
tatsr^^i^T The lig^t from Swr^'^^l^s
i^i A .^ ^^^^^ °f the night one's watch ^^ImI
and the hour could atoiost be read, and whm th^Jlw
7^ ^^r *^ 't^:T'^ for fortT del«?s uj into X*
a^ the^^^sh^teCrpie'^ ^ZVt^. X'^
tne front of the houses and the window panes caused ever^
thmg to quiver as .f they had been strudk by h^Tv ZVL
Byron's expression, ' As if the clouds its echoes w^Wrr,!!?;
suggested itself, for indeed the clouds musT^^ve^vtSd
the echoes smce each great gun made, not a ^h"r ^^
as when one is close to it.but a long roar which co^ be J^S
to last for two or even three belts of the puk^ Th^^^
^d\ttrr.piU"'*^ ""='*''"^"* '^' *^ ''^^^
t"S Cbs'"'•,''"^^ "^^ °^ prison'^r^me d^gS
itolL T» K "*. *''' ""'^'' "'^^y^ '^e" treated. for^"f
^^e c'^^crsesi o«r;r foi^^^r^hirhr
ald°Li! """*%,""' ^y ^"^ "'«»•* "'""tless wago^S^s S
and carts, as well as convoys of forage on mule-back or dmv^
with huge casks of wine, crowded the roar^ith sup^i^f^r
Td the W^n""^ "r '*'^"'' ^<" *«= «""««- and rTflemen
•J, n^r., ,, ^'^^ *^^ prisoners were well treated. I never
saw any harshness or trace of cruelty on the oart of thp ™«^
to t%r "'•*'!! '"P""^"' ^ <^-^ many of Pfaom ApearS
thri|tl^^^et-rtKt.r„ oLts rv^ri--
of bi^gmg or undue elation. We all quickly le^ed ?^
respect the Italians, both officers and men tL aHhtu^h
they were well aware of the formidable undSkiM thit
lay before them, showed themselves calmly rS^^f, a °d
i:i
I
i
386 REMINISCENCES OF THREE CAMPAIGNS
quietly and steadily made ready to deal ever heavier
blows.
As there were days and weeks of heavy engagements
which did not seem to lead to much, and then intervals of
quiet when nothing could be done ; so there were periods
of much surgery and crowded wards alternating with times
when they were almost empty and our patients were reduced
in number from a hundred or two to ten or twelve.
In this fashion the winter months passed over. During
them the strategy of Cadoma's armies was to push chiefly
by way of the Carso towards the coveted Trieste, attacking
with vast expenditure of ammunition, gaining ground and
consolidating themselves on it, and after these fierce spells
of bombardment and onset, resting and preparing for a
suitable moment for the culminating offensive which was
always expected and talked of and as constantly deferred,
though not abandoned, while from the orders which were
issued that none of the Italian staff was to have holidays
or leave, it was evident that tic storm was expected moment-
arily to break.
But whether matters had the appearance of being stagnant
or the reverse, no one could possibly mistake that Italy was
preparing always more strenuously, converting her factories
into mimition works, and utilising all her resources to the
utmost and in the best and most economical way ; looking
sedulously after the comfort and well-being of her armies,
even to providing them with occupations and relaxations,
and interesting their hours of rest by open-air concerts and
the like, and especially by preparing new roads for the strain
about to come, and repairing the wear and tear the old ones
had imdergone. The manner in which the roads were planned,
laid down anew, widened and graded and kept in the finest
Older, was the admiration of all who visited the zone of war.
No time was wasted, nothing was overlooked, nothing left
undone, and none of us who were in Italy that year failed to
acquire a respect for our Allies of the Italian Peninsula.
At one time, about the beginning of November, we thought
that this great off ensive which was being prepared for had come .
They had piled up power of all kinds, men and munitions,
behind the lines they had laboriously won with so much
bravery in the Austrian territory, and the accumulation
had gone on steadily and persistently all along the Isonzo
River and round Goritzia, till at length it burst on the
Austrian lines and overwhelmed them in a hurricane of
shell-fiie, in masses tremendous and unceasing, that pounded
the strongest fortifications on the rocky exposed Carso into
ITALY
287
LXII
Oim iTauAN Patients
It wUl be evident that these nreat tntlte. .«a h.
e wments continually going ^L ^"u's the f^ , '^Z
gangrenes, trench feet, and diseases occurring amon^ soirfi,«
terTir'*"! *"'"'' *» P'-^'' outsMe t~^ote for'
D^enL^ ■"*?* °' r™*"''' ^'''^^^ &»M the army C^r
^tients were of all classes, from privates to office™ of hiah
mto Bntish ways ; our women nurses were hugel/a^precl^tej
i 'I
:4I
1 lit
m
388 REMINISCENCES OF THREE CAMPAIGNS
by them, and theirs was an influence which will have left a
lasting impression and may result in helping to modify the
practice of nursing in the Italian Military Hospitals of the
future. To bring about such a result as this was the great
object which our principal medical officer had set before him-
self in instituting the hospital part of our unit, while all of
us who served under him earnestly shared his anticipations
and hopes and loyally did our best to further his views.
One thing was very plain, namely, that those officers of
high rank in the Italian Army who visited or officially inspected
us greatly approved of and admired our system of woman
nursing, and many favoiuttble comments were made and
written concerning us, by every one who knew anything of
hospitals and the management of sick and wounded. A
book was kept in which visitors and inspectors entered their
remarks and criticisms ; it gave eloquent testimony to the
good work we were doing, and it is a subject of very great
regret that this mass of appreciative verdicts was afterwards
lost in the debacle which ensued on the great Austrian advance
in November 1917.
So high did our reputation stand that persons unconnected
with the army, even those in high positions, chose to avail
themselves of our services, and openly expressed their grati-
tude and appreciation. It even came in time to be a not
unusual thing for injured men and officers to be brought or
sent to us by the Italian army medical officers belonging to
other hospitals for consultation or treatment in difficult
and obscure cases, and the results were pleasing to both
sides.
The Italian soldiers were a fine class of men, strong, well
made, and mature, mostly of the age of twenty-flve to thirty-
five, and they made admirable patients. Their manners
were better than those of a similar class in our own country,
and their docility and patient endurance commanded our
respect. At all times they were grateful and appreciative,
and one felt that under the roughest externals most of the men
were of lovable character and attractive dispositions. The
Italian peasant soldier is innately a gentleman.
Of the officers — ^and we had many of them as patients — I
cannot write too highly. Their courtesy was a thing to be
admired, and tmder their external polish thire also lay the
minds and hearts of true gentlemen.
Most of the wounds we haJ to treat were from shell and
grenades, and multiple and dangerous many of them were ;
the minority were fiim shrapnel and rifle bullets ; and there
was not a single case of bayonet wound among those which
ITALY
389
came under my own personal observaUon. But there was
aJso much disease, typhoid fever, dysentery, abdominal
troubles, rheumatism, and so forth. ' ■" "'
There were some curious names among the Italian soldiers :
Napoleone. Marco Polo, Ferrara, and Orlando had a historical
Kiund ; some smacked of literature, as Naso, Caracco, and
ralestnni j others of natural objects, as Cannone, Palafitto,
Ucata, Persico, and Pozzo ; there were names that sounded
S!? • n".ff'^°"'' "' P»P*' Angelantonio, Mirandolo,
Pnncigalh, jUlegrmi, Fratepietro, Cerini, and Magogo; while
°"J2 ?"*^^ "•*** "^^^ * Germanic surname, MuUeri
Mahngermg was not unknown among the privates, thoueh
It was rare. It could not be said that they whined, but
certamly m not a few instances they made much of their
slight pams and discomforts when they came {torn the field
into hospital ; perhaps unconsciously the poor fellows were
glad to make themselves out unfit to return to the fleht
More childlike than our men, there were fewer among them'
of the ftitish type, eager and unafraid to go back to serve.
JUiunently brave in action when well led and confident in
tfiett commanders, their courage was of a different kind—
not so spontaneous and exuberant as that of the British
in the matter of maUngering there seemed to be a species of
treemasonry ; they possessed a knowledge of various plants
such as the Spurges (Euphorbias), of which they applied or
injected the juices so as to cause inflammation and disease
in additior to this, they probably had other plans for pro-
ducmg artificial illness. Several times, when I had to take
charge of the medical wards in the absence of Dr B a
number of mysterious ilhiesses broke out in such a fashion
that I had to suspect some deception of the kind, and the
unexpected patience with which they submitted unmurmur-
mgly to strong and unpleasant treatment rather confirmed
the suspicion. In the case of the surgical diseases the con-
fessions which the cappellano managed to extract completed
the proof, but I never quite fathomed the means used or its
mode of application. In the Italian army such simulation
IS, I believe, punished with a few years of penal senritude
though It IS deferred until the termination of the war.
• ^"^ °^ *^ convoys of cars bringing our patients arrived
m the dark hours. This was to spare the patients from the
shellmg and bombing by aircraft. It was hard upon the
drivers, especially when there was no moon, and the darkness
ahnost pitch-like, for no lights were permitted on the roads •
and under these conditions the eyes lost the power of dis-
cnmmating distances and avoiding obstacles, as the aecom-
m
j ■
n
hM
390 REMINISCENCES OF THREE CAMPAIGNS
modating muscles of the eyes hod no standard by which to
judge, everything appea'.ing equally indistinct and equally
distant. The polarisation, moreover, of such light as passed
through the glass of the wind -screens increased the obscurity,
and the strain of endeavouring to avoid collisions told on the
nerves, and led to big smashes or Ting. Even by day the
ambulance driver's work was sometimes no light one ; they
had to bring their freights of wounded, during the winter
months, through veils of fine driving snow which penetrated
every cranny and article of clothing and powdered every
surface, over expanses of sncwy roads and fields, with bending
trees bowing before the violence of the hurricane, which
would last sometimes for twelve hours at a stretch and
scourged all living things from the open into shelter. Those
were days when up in the Alps the conditic!;s were far worse
than down in the plains ; when the soldiers, clad in white
cloaks so as to be less conspicuous, were living and fighting
in snow which in some places was thirty metres deep or more,
where they had to abandon their buried fortifications, dig
tunnels and trenches and gun emplacements in the surface
of the hardening snow, which sometimes overwhelmed them
in avalanches, or froze them to death, and furnished us with
relays of sufferers from frost gangrene resulting in loss of a
portion of a limb.
It was a not unconunon event for us, in pursuance of orders,
to have to evacuate the patients in our wards until perhaps
only three I'memovable cases remained, and in a couple of
days later two or three hundred would be sent in, so that all
our beds were again filled with privates and officers, and the
sheds and outside shelters, spread with mattresses filed with
wheat straw, were employed for the lighter cases. Even our
men's barracks were requisitioned, while such as could walk
and go farther were given rest and refteshment on tables
and trestles under some cover or under the trees if the hour
and weather made such a resource possible, till they were able
to proceed to their destination. Regulations were thrown
aside for the time under such circumstances.
Whenever the three whistles that signalled the arrival of
a convoy of wounded soundr^d through the hospital, every
man and woman who was on duty rushed to his place ; down-
stairs came the orderly officer of the day, a duty which we
alternately took ; the patients allotted to our hospital were
sifted out, their papers and injuries verified, and their des-
tined wards signified. Each patient was borne into the
warmed hall, the nurses clustend round him, his soiled and
torn clothing was gently removed and clean warm linen
ITALY „,
W ~?.l!^.'"'*"i"*?'.- ^. "•• "™«J tato « comfortable
w^;hh.i^ •i'^'^lf*'"*' *° counteract the shock from
^f hU h^^'°" ,°' !i""-*«t^""» serum-if there weri dSubt
of his having already received it at the dressing station-
and It waa repeated at the end of the week. After »me hours
»^'^ ''".""i" "^'^ examined, the dressings removed and
renewed, and the proper treatment decided upon. After
his case had been recorded, he was in all save Vxceptional
instances brought to the radiography toon <, and^thn^t
anydelaytheconditionofbonesaKreignbodiesasceSiineS
It was a good thmg to see the collapsed men blossom int<;
new life and spmts under the cares thev received
Asaruleourpatientswerebathedandsponged; anddressed
daily, or twice, or even three times a d^. When naU^
as sometimes happened, came to the Villa TWo &^
Itahan hospital, an event that even befeU some of our o^
countrymen, they compared the comfort of such attendance
as our nurses surrounded them with, with that of the other
evZ^iji^" *•"•" rT**" "^"^ 8""'"'"y ""ended to
eveiy third day, owing to the want of capable women nurses
One must wedit our orderUes, stretcher-bearers, and nurses
i" theV^lK*^'' °'/Ji" "* '""^ "^^P^'°" °^ *^« "°"^"S
r. if t1 ■ J^v' ^"^ *' ''"y "> '''''* they handled them
^\^Z- ^'' '"/''L.^' **"y """"^ »"y manifestation
of suflermg or even fretfulness among the brave fellows who
were admitted, it might have been a flrst-aid^SiSas an
exhibition to the public. All was so tenderly donTthlt iS
%JJ^ a'^ i^f, "Jt'T'^'^s °"e <»"M waUc through the
7h^Jr^ ^"^.t" ^'^ ^^y ''°"»''«' "^leeP with every
^Oitrml^r.'"'' ""' ''"^'^« "'"■^«» - *' --t
Owing to the anti-tetanic injections, ^hich in the Italian
army were compulsory we had only one case of lockjaw
that I can recall, and so beneficial were they found to be that
an injection was made as a preliminary to every operation
un^r the mstructions of the Italian military mSical TuZ'-
..^Z^^^ the Villa Trento also an out-patient department
wh«^ unattached soldiers, and indeed all who hadTcIaim
^Ji- ? m ' "*" "^"^y ^" ''"^ prescribed for by the Italian
medical officers attached to us, under the supervision of our
SSrXt.'"^"" Oneoftheseofflcerswasanaccom-
t ill
^i^
393 REMINISCENCES OF THREE CAMPAIGNS
LXIII
Thx Suma* Omvtm or 1917
DuBiNO the winter of lOie-17 matters on the Italian front
dragged somewhat during the perpetual mist, rain, cold, and
sticky mud. But towards the end of February the evanescent
Italian spring began to show itself, and our hopes rose with
its advent. A few snowdrops appeared by the banks of the
muddy streams, followed in quick succession by purple and
white crocuses, green hellebores, and primroses, which passed,
all except the primroses, in so fleeting a procession that they
were seen one week and gone the next in their rapid and
unsatisfactory sequence. There is no abiding satisfaction
in an Italian spring ; it hurries so.
About the same time, after periods of long silence, during
which millions of shells were being daily sent forwards, and
great preparations made, the guns began to bark once more
at intervals, and a detachment from the myriads of cannon
on the British front in France, consisting, it was said, of forty
heavy pieces and British gunners, made their appearance,
all in anticipation of a fierce attack upon the Carso. But for
a long time, during which we waited alternately hoping
and being disappointed, both sides faced one another, strUung
small blows, and sparring rather than fighting went on.
The mud dried and returned, and when April came we got
rather despondent amid snowstorms and hurricanes of wind.
The hills of the Carso were whitened with snow, and the Alps
were permanently and entirely covered with it. Military
operations seemed hardly possible, but every chance was
taken ; the guns sometimes boomeid out, and rose at night
into a perfect inferno, but the actions were short-lived ;
though occasionally reaching an intensity of 7620 ^hots from
the great artillery per hour, they died down towards ten at
night. The end of that month found us still despondent.
When May came in the activity behind the front became
positively delirious. It was hardly possible to sleep of nights
for the passage of troops in the dark, the rattling and whist-
ling of despatch riders on their motor bicycles, the flapping
of the caterpillar cars, the grinding of armoured turrets
and gun carriages, the hooting and shrilling of the lorries
carrying the heavy artillery shells, the sirens of the auto-
mobiles, the whistling oi the railway trains, and the tread of
the mule convoys, carts, and feet of the soldiers, while their
raucous voices were mixed all night long with the whirring
of the aeroplanes and the explosions of the bombs which
ITALY
»93
lll7, dwppniB. The army w.i awakening from iu
letharKr; mtmuttion reached us that great evenU w<m
»on hkely to take pUce. and our commJSdant wS da^SJ
about amongst his stations like a lightning flash. We wm
thing with the forces which were humming all around us •
In^ Th- Z"Z '^•*" ""* •»»«<*«"'• '""ting only for the word
o^r their nU^"»' Z"' tPP'^n^'y '""B^ing at us, sendin,^
^^r i^-^ "J" ^"'^ ^""^ '*""d »» '"d kill a few me*
M Ti.?~ ' n* *° '"'"/ °»- ''^«* " *e days slipped away
of h^ZT^\^^, °' ^<f^^^ ""^ *-^' rattling offof a to
rt.„* 'T' if" J*"^ forenoon about the luncheon hour, and
then a drop back m the afternoon for a sort of siesta, a, if
en«^es were exhausted. There seemed to be something
Z^'h.^/^L"";^" *"',"? <l"««t'on«l their neighbours if aU
h»TJ^S iLr'*'' G«"«™l«"mo Cadoma, whom none of us
had seen looking after things in this quarter.
"^Uo^set seriously to work, and oft and on continued and
th^^K i' '*?" ."P°° *'«' Austrians for days, keeping
the most part cut ott the view of everything, but even bv dav-
about the trenches m the neighbourhood of the Monte Santo
in ft II °"^ ""i^ the operations on the less elevated Carso
m full energy, but the Italians had found it necessary™
f!^Z ^, T"«;heir left flank of the Carso advanST^u"
mSL ?^1f'^''«' the perilous business of stomping the
wSr?H.f'''"'''L'"^"!"' ^"*^' """l ^ commenced
with a detemiined attack on the Monte Santo. We soon
discovered this from the streams of wounded who^mH
^n^ i""^^ ""*•' every one of our beds was full. Shell
and buUet wounds almost exclusively ; not at close grips as
«t (iv A' *l u ° "'^u'' '" ""* "°"''"8 a convoy would cSmVin ;
t^JJ' i ""fu*"*^ ' "* *•*<* " *•'•"' •• «"<J the day brought
Lw^ ^iT = 1^7 S'^P"^ *••« «=«?*"« of the top of the
"y th^enem """^ ■" '^^ *"' '*"' ™*'' *° ^ ~""P'«J
commJX'^ ''^'''''* *''** ** ^*"* °*'""^' ""* »* J^^t
fij^^- "*°"*^£^"tP' *'"' '^'Rhest of the hiUs dominating
&tb^tin„^n,,"i '''^?- *^' "^y- "8M opposite Monte
1^ Th,^'ntS 'VT. " ^'« *'°8 *° '^v^ got ^ssession of
rLJi " ,'""//' *'•' "'"*•' °f it, called Monte San
Gabrwle, a couple of hundred feet lower, and only two and a
"I I
394 REMINISCENCES OF THREE CAMPAIGNS
half miles (torn the city, had been atonned >t the lame time,
but the Bssault was unsuccessful. It was hoped, however,
that the superior elevation of Monte Santo wouUl enable it
to command the latter when once the guns had been estab-
lished on it.
As it proved, however, this was not all the success. In
the afternoon news came in that Monte Kuk (Cucco), another
8000 feet mountain six and a half miles up the river, and which
practically dominated its middle reaches and the Temova
plateau behind it, had fallen into our hands. The casualties
were stated as having been quite moderate, a thing which
seemed almost incredible to one who bad seen the entrench-
ments on those heights.
Oiu* jubilations were somewhat premature, however, for
indeed the capture of Monte Santo was not completed until
three months later, so enormously strong were its defences,
and so bravely was it held. The taking of Monte Kuk, how-
ever, proved to be of great importance and enabled a con-
siderable extent of territory farther up tiie river to be overrun.
It was a titanic struggle which went on along the Isonzo
and on the Carso day after day, and one beyond my powers
to describe, even had I fully witnessed it. There was a
correspondent to the Italian Corriere delta Sera, Luigi Barzini,
whose pen described in the columns of that newspaper in
the most lively manner the scenes which occurred, and so
well did his sketches portray the wild contest between the two
contending nations that they would well repay translation
by some one.
Nignt and day the advance went on to the north of Goritzia
in the Isonzo defile, where the Kuk, Vodice, and Monte Santo
overhung the valley and river the Italians had to cross, and
also on the east of the town and on the Carso south of it.
Again and again our allies, slow as we had sometimes thought
them, performed wonders of bravery, and so well had they
foreseen and prepared everything that they were able to dash
forward at obstacles that seemed insuperable, against heavy
odds and vast preparations, to scale the Austrian heights,
capture positions and peaks one after another, take prisoners
in batches of 12,000 at a time, and daily appear to be resist-
lessly going on in one direction or another, but especially
on the Carso, towards the coveted Trieste. It was a sur-
passing triumph, and they were right generous in acknowledg-
mg the assistance that had been rendered by the 2000 British
and their forty howii. ■«. We never thought more of the
Italians than in their hour of triumph.
As the Austrians fell back nearly everywhere, though not
ITALY
»95
SS^l^^i. drtemuned retuUnoe, they did not f.il to
better wone than ever the city of Goritiia, hudly • rood of
ground ..caping their .hell, .'nd .hrapnel. One of olHin
while di«!h«rgmg It. ambubnce duty wa. de.troyed, for-
tunately with no injury to our men, and the garden of our
^"bS" '" *°*" ""''"*' ' """^'y '"PP'y °' •^*"»
Such effort, could not be long sustained, and won on both
side, there were indications that ammunition for the bis
guns had to be conserved, so that there ensued periods of
wmpwative quiet, alternating with other, of activity, and
these went on for the first half of the summer, during which
Austrian ampjanes showed considerable enterprise, particu-
^1» Ji* ;J" ^'^^^ the pUces about, and destroying,
among other things, a fine muwum of antiquities at Cividale.
We assumed that a cause-and there may have been others
-of the sUckening off of the May offensive, which had at
first proir.;sed to overwhehn the Austrian., was the difficulty
of maintammg the immense supplies of ammunition for the
great guns which its tactics involved. Vet strenuous
efTorts were being made to push on, and the advance was
contmued. partly m the riainsitz« Plateau behind the Monte
si r K y u .""f"' sti^nely against Monte Santo and
San Gabnele, but most of all in the Carso in the direction of
ineste. All the same, to an onlooker it was evident that,
m spite of many spurts, the strength of the propulsion was
dymg out notwithstandmg the desperate valour of the
assaultmg soldiers, and the conclusion was that there was a
want m the supplies to the artillery. Gradually ' September
activities began to be spoken of, and the probabilities settled
down to some great preparation being made for striking a
crownmg blow towards that time. More gigantic prepara-
tions than ever were seen to be going on week after week,
more mtense accumulations of men and munitions became
visible, the whole Und was an ant-hill of military energy,
and there was hardly a field which did not contain crowds
or mfentry, horses, encampments, huts, stores, and guns.
And the war correspondents, those sure precursors of events
began to drop from the skies into our Villa to be fed and
refreshed, the gmnt M-C . Mr. H , and even ladies
of the same calling, enlivened us by their presence, their
hmts pf thmgs about to happen, and tales of what was being
done m the United States and elsewhere to help on the war
fleets of aeroplanes, in such numbers as we had not hitherto
seen, began to appear on our side, great aerodromes and vast
hangars for larger aircraft were put up, and as our Villa lay
M
296 REMINISCENCES OF THREE CAMPAIGNS
the:
! and the (
I they wiled
directly i
over ui at all hour* ; thoie going into aotion dying high, with
■ gentle miuioal hum, glittering like (Urcr diurafliet when
the lun fell on their poUihed sur&oe*, floating In oompaniea
maiettically high above the clouds till they dwindled m liae
and diiappeared at they reached the fight ; thoee returning
fipom it flying lower, showing the green, white, and red Italian
colours on the wings and body, and passing overhead with a
deep groaning wavering purr as if in agony to get home for
further supplies of Aiel and ammunition. By August these
aerial monsters became so numerous that their noise was so
loud and constant as to interfere with the proper stetho-
scopic examinations of our patients' chests and the dick of
the telephone probes when exploring for bullets. Their
clamour was constant, and so loud as to resemble somewhat
the deep bass notes of a great organ ; it filled the land with
its wailmg quivering roars, disputing for pre-eminence with
the sounds of the passing motors and motor-tiansport
machines. The country indeed revcberated with the sounds
of war, and the great guns punctiuted the seconds with their
reports. Day after day this went on in the hot August days,
while we, stripped to shirt and trousers, continued our work
among the wounded, soothing the shell-shattered forms,
arranging ease to the broken limbs, and anxiously watching
the joints which had been perforated by rifle bullets or firag-
ments of shell, for evil symptoms to arise. It was warm
and anxious work in the middle and end of that month, but
a joy to be able to do so great things for those who:n *':• war
had mutilated and lacerated.
Report said that the enemy was burning their stores on
the Bainsitza and Temova Plateaux, and falling back, and
this was corroborated by the news that some of their Red
Cross nurses, whom they had not found time to withdraw,
had fallen into our hands. But for this I cannot vouch,
and I never learned whether it were true or not.
On the 29th of August the noise of immense guns, of a
calibre we had never before heard, broke out. One might
have thought the sounds due to explosions of ammunition
magazines, but this supposition was negatived by their
rhythmical regularity. Alter lasting for about an hour there
was added to them a prolonged, though not very severe,
thunderstorm which continued without intermission until
the next morning. It was accompanied by a fairly heavy
rainfiall which, as the weather was not cold, was a godsend
to the troops lying out on the tablelands, and especially to
the wounded there, as it provided them with some water.
ITALY
»97
Many of the poor fallowi had bMB tnoMd wouixlaii far
pound Md the abMnce of ro«b. Our cMt could tod OMMble
totet aod boulden, up which • t,.r oouU be taken only by
tremendou. efforU, but down which it was not praetioabfe
work thercjcollected the wounded in wme protects hollow
aoo yards from the fighting line, lifted them on board and
conveyed them along the top of the UblcUnd. a. fJrS^ibte
They wm then tomrferre/ to .tretcher. and carri«l ^^„i
down the nde of the mountain, until they reached a place
^^^o:;^.."*^ ""• ■"•' "y "*»»' «=-"«• *— oVS
fnS '''?™''y r" •"«**'»•' by the lUlian. in armnging
for food and water bemg Uken up to the troopi on the heK
M th'/ r^^fl^::!^ ""'' '"^^ mM?ellou.ly to^^
fnLmt "^'««"'t'e?-thfir engmeers. for instance, rapidly
vaUey, and at once settmg about making passable roads,
ine actions at this time continued unbroken for seveni
The appearances at night, when one had leisure to attend
™i^Vr"' ""^""Bettable. From the Carsc n„ the south-
this str^tP^'f *"*■"/"* "^f" «°^« °"' »"^ the whole of
this stretch of country formed a wall of hUls, humped and
tT, ^-U' /■. f h""""!. black against the light^ sky.
nie moon at its full shone brightly over the whole, and in
the now cooler night the hazy mists were filling up the valleys
throwing every eminence into dark relief. Few fixed Ii«hts
1!^ w *?" ' """^ " '*" ^'"hle appeared to be signaUing
posts, but It was remarkable how r^Sdy the ItalialTu^
light signals by night or heliography by day : irutead^
otherr^l r^<' °' **"?"• «°^--e^l a f^tHl^^ the
other wars 1 had seen, no signaUing at all was visible during
the day, wWe at night the occasional and rather rare appear-
fh,^ y. •■' I? °' f '^" ^^^^ ^"^ ''" that caught the eyVas
they showed up for a few seconds. On the other hand, the
hills on the honzon were brilliant with the starred red flashes
of the burstmg shells, and the flames of the guns illumina^
I! I >
298 REMINISCENCES OF THREE CAMPAIGNS
the skyline over a complete quarter of the view, particularly
over San Gabriele.
Still the contest went on. Ten days passed, twenty-four days
passed, and there was no sign of its coming to an end . By that
time the expenditure of ammunition must have been enormous.
I tried to form an estimate of it, but it was probably quite an
erroneous one. I reckoned that on the Carso aloTte the heavy
artillery — that is, the great guns whose explosions could be
counted above the rolling of the smaller pieces — were on the
11th of September firing night and day at the rate of 48 shots
per minute, which would amoimt to 1,486,000 in the 24
days. It was probably an under-esti.iiate. Moreover, it
took no account of the smaller pieces, nor did it include the
battle going on round Goritzia and on the middle Isonzo.
The surprise at the stores of ammunution which must have
been accumulated was followed by marvelling how long it
would last without one side or the other becoming exhausted.
So strenuously were they engaged, on our side at least,
tnat we could get few accounts of how the fight was succeeding ;
nobody came to tell us ; only the woimded, who were being
brought in in large numbers, could say anything, and their
statements were usually limited to telling that they were
wounded on such a day and hour, and at such a place. As
a rule they did not even know what caused their wounds,
whether rifle shot, machine gun, shell, grenade, or flying
fhigments of rock.
I was not sorry to have the opportunity of seeing what
modem war was like. It was all very different from my
former experiences. Up to that time there had been no harder
fighting anywhere than that going on at the Italian fhint,
and its intensity seemed almost incredible. It was a war of
desperadoes. Hourly the mountains, honeycombed by the
Austrian fortified recesses, were being pulverised by the
enormous showers of explosives hurled upon them. Hourly
the Italians were pressing on. Amid huge losses on both sides
they poured into the dens where the enemy were still con-
cealed, and there, man to man, they drove them out or killed
them, or were killed themselves. Foot by foot and yard by
yard the ground was in this manner being won, and from the
Isonzo to the sea it never ceased for an instant.
The Austrians were no less resolute ; their bravest picked
regiments of Hungarians, Croats, etc., were hurled in counter-
attacks upon the pits, galleries, and trenches which had
been won by our side, and with the most desperate valour
they strove to retake their lost positions.
Few troops in the world could have done what Italy was
ITALY
a99
^»™! 77'" ^^"^ *''' impossible. They were gaming a
name equal to any before won, and their valour was matched
by their chivalrous kindness to the captured and wounded
fK.Ai,*"""^- ^^^y ""* """^ ™°r« proving to the world
Sly^m^" """^^ '"'' ''"'^' P"°P''' "''°'" ""' ™""°* *°°
th^^L"'] *r- ^^"""^ ^^^ '"'^*'**y °^ 'he Italians. In
the midst of theu- great ach-vements I did not hear a boast,
nor a word of se^-app-:.,raiior> or self -laudation. Neither
t W iZ^LT? It "''"'^r ^ " *'"''* "* "'"'■' e^^' t''°"«h they knew
that the rest of the worl.l ^":,s looking m and admiring. Their
S^nF^^r r?""*?* Y''"' P"^^ t '« appreciations in the
*^nch, English, and oth.. pubi.^tions, but their own com-
fiSw T^^J^^u^ ^''* ^'°'" ''■•«ggi"g; they were digni-
fiedly pleased to be appreciated, and that was all. These
observations were not mine alone; the British, Americans,
and others who visited the zone of war noticed and admired
the same thmgs, and all admitted that those only who had
fX ™i.r";f ^ where the victories were being gained could
fully value the valour the victors had displayed.
To most It was something of a revelation to find feats of
arms bemg done daily here which fully paralleled those of
the heroes of Manchuria and Port Arthur.
If
LXIV
Italian Dressing Stations
^""^1?^ "i"^ i^J^^y ^ ^'^ " 8ood many opportunities,
m the intervals of duty at the Villa Trento, ofTsiting the
un&i?h*.^\™r.1 °^ """' """^ observing the conditions
under which the battles went on and the maiTner in which the
Italian surgeons dealt with the wounded. I now propose to
describe some of those visits and what I saw
There was one occasion on which we had cleared out so
many of those patients who were considered able to be evacu-
w»*r,^'"' fl° }^^^ *••"* ^^^ °""»^'' °f ^'^^ "nder my care
Zit^„"''T^ *™'u"f ^ ^^ *••' opportunity to nm over to
Gorrtzia. The sun had set before we left the hospital, so the
ihh? \T T'^' '" ^^^ ^'^^^' *1'°"8'» "°t in the dark, for
^i^^^^K f^^.'^'f °^"cast the moon gave sufficient light
behmd the clouds for us to see our way. Lights were of
course not permitted lest they should draw the Austrian Arc
When we arnved at Mosso village it was as dark as it was going
to be all night, and it was surprising to notice how the flashes
from the cannon not only lit up, as if they had been lightning.
m
300 REMINISCENCES OF THREE CAMPAIGNS
the distant hills they were playing upon, the Austrian artillery
beyond the horizon bringing out marvellously the perspective
of each mountain and peak, but also illuminated the ghost-like
ruins of the villages of Mosso, Lucinico, and Podgora as we
passed through them. All round, as we neared the city,
across the Isonzo towards the south and eastwards in front
of us, the star shells, rising like rosy rockets, changed into the
brilliant white magnesium light, climbed upwwls, making
all beneath visible, curved over, and fell downwards, dropping
a trail of red sparks as they came towards the ground. The
batteries at the foot of the Podgora Ridge on the left of our
road were firing over oui heads across the river, and were
deafening, but hardly more so than those across the river, or
even than the Austrian guns, still more distant in our front,
from San Marco, and beyond Goritzia, for their muzzles,
being directed towards us, gave us the full benefit of their
noise. The tumult was immense. The ceaseless march of
bodies of infantry, the convoys of stores, and especially on
this occasion the trains of ambulances, were like an ever-
fiowing river, as we wound our way through and past them,
crossed the Isonzo by the lower bridge on which alone the
forward traffic was permitted, and drew up at the gate of
our first ambulance station in the northern part of the town,
just in time for dinner. But there was no time to dine, for
I met George B going out in his car to post his ambu-
lances for the night, and the chance of accompanying him was
too fortunate to be missed. I jumped into his car, and we
sped away in the dark along the south road which runs parallel
to the left bank of the river. There the press was not so dense.
Bows of soldiers sitting along the roads, under the shelter
of walls and hedges, waiting the orders to attack, horses,
pioneers, and tmgainly tower-like armoured motor-cars,
impeded us somewhat, as did also the ammunition carts and
provision lorries, which, more italiano, were usually on the
wrong, or left hand, side of the road.
The roaring of the artillery, much of which came from the
fields which we were ;>assing, and the duller thud of the
bursting shells, became continuous, while an occasional
bullet would sing past, and it was strange to reflect how small
a loss of life such an enormous amount of firing caused.
But the din was deafening, and when we reached Savogna
dressing station we were in the middle of it. The star shells,
which rose on every side except behind, went straight over-
head high into the air, and for the moment made objects
almost as bright as by day, and they flew upwards every few
seconds.
ITALY 3„,
good operation table, an abundant store of nnti t I
irh^rl^'*'""'^'^ "' medicines"^ tab kidl™ 'aSl«
^5^/a\-orKtel-^t tlf d^norC-
:s^trH"--^'^^^
forw«^h^ had a good operation table. The sup^y of wate;
OBve Deen otherwise at so exposed a station where th,. ^!.
cupation was accidental and tempore^, and whfres^r^r
Umes the pressure of work was so ^tThat theT^oXd"
I
30a REMINISCENCES OF THREE CAMPAIGNS
to do several emergency operations in such haste that he had
to dispense with the use or aneesthetics.
When I had said adieu to my Italian confrire and he had
accepted the gift of a good cigar, we returned to Goritzia
by a short cut through a series of deserted villages and southern
suburbs of the town. I cannot now remember whether the
sky had cleared as we rode back, or whether it wis the star
shells that lit up the houses which we passed, but I recollect
being struck by the way in which those houses which had
been abandoned in the enemy's flight had been spared by the
entering Italians. They were simply closed and sealed up,
hardly a window was broken, and any damage that was done
was the unavoidable result of the cannonade during the
actions. I may mention too that this care of enemy's pro-
perty was the same everywhere in tfce war so far as I saw.
There was no looting by the Italians ; even the ruined
factories blown down by shells showed all the machinery
untouched excepting for the artillery damage and that caused
by exposure to the elements. Nothing was carried away.
In the houses also which I entered the furniture of the former
inmates which they had not had time to carry off, and which
was often piled up ready to have been removed, some of it
being valuable, was always left intact, and never were there
any signs of wanton damage. The ornamental gardens of
the residences were as perfect as when they had been left,
statues and fountains were uninjured, and in the case of the
poor, their houses, huts, buildings, petty industries, and pos-
sessions were never interfered with except for vilid military
reasons. A house in Goritzia where I spent the night was an
instance of the same. It had been occupied in flats, aban-
doned, taken possession of by the Italians, and handed over
to our unit to be used as one of their ambulance stations.
All its furniture was left in good condition, some articles were
used and transported as convenient, but no damage was done,
and everything was respected. Some of the articles were
valuable, such as the piano and larger objects. The flat
where my bed was had been the habitation of a Madame C ,
wife of a music teacher, and it remained as she had left it,
with her litt'e pictures, small trinkets, books of devotion,
private letters, a few pieces of women's finery, and her little
child's crib, standing as when she went away. It was all an
astonishing contrast to what was reported of the behaviour
of the Germans in Belgium and France.
All through the night the cannon thundered, and the shells,
each with its own peculiar sound, flew overhead, often in
salvos, but more usually in independent firing, but they did
ITALY
303
not interfere with my having a good night's rest. Every one
was not so fortunate ; for later on a shdl shattered the hou^
at a rc< m where one of our drivers was sleeping, and he su^
tamed a compound frncture of the thigh and imW to the
knee jomt, which, though he made a%onderfT%c^veS
was long m bemg cured, and rendered him permanen%^^ J'
!i
LXV
More Itauan Dbessino Stations
Another region which I visited was the middle Isonzo at
the tm,e when the advance on the Monte Kuk and the
Bamsitza Plateau behmd it was going on. My fhend Dr!
a—— lent rae his excellent camera and a supply of fihns
.^nd armed with these I set off with the design of e=^mS
as many as possible of the dressing stations along tt^rivef
fn/ fi. ' J"""y minutes to get out of the plain and
wWh^""™!^*?^ ■""'''' of valleys, ridges, and inequalities
which rose speedily into ranges of hills and cliffs, alternating
with deep gorges, whiJi became more and more acceXai^
side of the Isonzo glen. If I could have had half a dozen
cameras, all day in which to use them, and could havettS
thecar at will and avoided the searching eyes of theLrSri
who were namg m pairs at every few hundred yards to watch
that no strangers or suspicious persons got through and that
nothmg was done m contravention of military rSie, I couM
have placed on the sensitised collodion a graphic ^cort of
the mass of encampments, shelter tents, patrol tents, wZlen
huts, barracks, Imes of picketed horses and mules, h^ps
of forage and other stores, convoys of firewood, food and
mumtions men advancing to the fighting lines, gigant"c
r^oL "^Z/""" ^*'^^°' consumption in tne bftteries!
trendies, and dug-outs, and other constructions for offence
or protection which l^d to be lined by troops day and nigh?
The most prominent features on the roads, and by a long way
the ughest, were the sf.ings of motor lorries-here M
camions-each transporting several tons' weight, wS
nn^„P.l'P^*"*J'y "*.* "i*!* •"■ °^e^t«ken spinning furiously
along the roads, and raising choking clouds of dust which
hung about and powdered the wayside trees, vines, shrubs
fifteen yards on either side. These motor vehicles form a
vulgar but most essential phase of modem warfare. It was
304 REMINISCENCES OF THREE CAMPAIGNS
a restful contrast to turn one's eyes to the clifls and reefs of
rock to right and left, and mark hivr their reverse sides—
those that were turned away from the missiles, observation
posts, and aeroplanes of the enemy — on every eminence,
were lined with attractive rows of little tents, or booths,
concealed in the brushwood. Each small peak had its tiny
shelter or excavation hidden beneath it, each clifflet its nice
little stairs, steps, or ladder, leading up to it, and every
possible nook and comer contained some comfortable little
bivouac, bell tent, or arbour, so cool and homelike that one
would have been enchanted to explore them and take up one's
abode there in the warm summer days. Jolly little paths
led up or down to them, the very sight of which was enough
to make one long to stop and follow them to the gypsy dwell-
ings they led to. It would have been some compensation for
the inability to get them into the camera under the carabinieri's
eyes.
By extraordinary windings, twists, bends, and heavy
upward ^wlients, none other being possible in that rugged
land, we groaned our ascending way towards a ruined and
abandoned campanile and church that stood on the skyline,
a spot to which I hod before gone in order to get a stolen peep
of the Isonzo gorge and the Austrian lines, when the valley was
still in Teutonic hands. The churches in Friuli, being by pre-
ference built on the highest available points, were often used
as observation posts by the side which held them, and were
therefore shelled, destroyed, and abandoned, though the
campanili frequently escaped wonderfully. It was a long and
heavy climb to reach the height where the church stood.
From where we commenced to ascend, though the distance
was really short, there were such endless serpentine turns of
the road that out would almost have thought the way had
been planned in an endeavour not to reach the church at all ;
the road darted to right and left, dodged behind hillocks and
hills, peeped round sly comers, sneaked round cones, hid
itself away again, and seemed in an agony to keep out of sight
of the church. Eventually we found ourselves skimming
along just below the church, and suddenly came out upon the
crest, when there lay before us, right opposite, the Monte Kuk,
the Vodice peak, and the plateau of Temova, where the struggle
was going on, and we looked down the precipices of the
Monte Sabotino overhanging the lucent strip of »;reen water
at the bottom of the narrow defile, and were gazing on the
Isonzo. We had reached the battle-field.
But here, if we could see, we were also visible. For some
time the crack of shrapnel shells exploding had been a
ITALY
305
r^rW *" ■«; the litUe patches of black smoke in the skv
above ug, ard the .howering down of their deadly little balk
o^h^Oirstir^rr'r^ *".'" ■»«'"'' ^we e"ct^^'
vaLv w! i^ S^'J"**'' "'^.'""t °" to descend into the
valley. We wound down roads all carefully screened with
mau of reeds and branches of trees, slidi^^oKely down
the slopmg sides of the gorge, and twistin7thena7almost
parallel to the nver which flowed beneath, 8™?!^ Xi
degrees and many turns to the lower levels The Austrkn
guns from the top of Monte Santo, which was at tl^t tine sUl"
heW by the enemy, and from the Temova Plateau, commanded
the fa«s we were n.nning along, and though these^ h^ f^
a considerable time been held by the ItalL the^emy
^H K *^^,""8ts to a yard and kept searching the S
aad heights with their artiUery in ho^ of doin£,femaK to
the roads and the traffic along the^or to catch a c&n«
detachment or individual in the wo^s that s^reen^?^
ways and positions ftom their direct observation
but ItM^vlf""" "L**!.* f^'l"''"'* ''' P^'^P^ not accurate,
side ,^^ V h'"" *^"* *•"' P°"' *•"* we Lne to a rough
^Zf^^ ? "« ^'°"8 ™= '""«*" °f ^ 8""y; and with
k^l^ "** ?"" '*r^8 ^- ^ guided his^r^to
^.. j!!f 1^ '■''^ * ^^ °n *•>« cU« side, and in another
hundred yards rushed down a jumble of loose ston«^?ij^
round a corner, to a shelf overhanging a gTe^ Mow 'a^^^
found ourselves m a little cluster of ^oodln buUdiT^ adh«'
ing like swallows' nests to a hollow in the rock^ind thL
was Visnjevik one of our temporary ambu wtTstetioi^
It was manned by three of our unit, a couple of iS
sodiers, and had three or four cars ready when 4C for W
telephone to be employed in bearing back The w^"?edfroi^
tll^"^ "^^-I^ ^^"rT *° «""« °f tl'^ numerous field hospitek
behmd the ndge. On the reverse side of the ridgeTverv
buildmg of any size had been converted into' a S
traTreiot°e^ Tlf'' *" ^'^"J^^ikr departed by the rough
d^t^Thf m«J '""I"' T*' """^ ^commenced the
aescent. ine road was long, but well amAni off„,ji„
mteresting peeps through L scr^n ^ SmSf
aquamanne-coloured Isonzo rushing through Lvprecf
pices and gi^n banks, and of the fuined^ vmag^f Pava
Ts we„TsTl^*h •^""''^ "' *^ ^^"^ '^^ a'sharp tu™! '
as well as a good bridge connecting the two banks while
.bove them rose the steep Plava Hill gained by thTl Jiins
early m the war. and the possession of which on the eaJtem
m:
306 REMINISCENCES OF THREE CAMPAIGNS
bank alone enabled them to maintain their fooJng in the
village.
From Plava the road to Goritzia, still disputed by the two
armies, ran close and parallel to the eastern bank of the river,
and as there was not space iii the gorge for both road and
railway, the latter bored a way down the western bank by
a series of cuttings and long tunnels through the precipitous
sides of the Monte Sabotino.
A rough glen, scooped out by a mountain stream, comes out
of the west to join the Isonzo gorge at Plava, and is crossed
by the five or six arches of the railway bridge, and when we
had turned up under <^he bridge we came to another of our
ambulance posts, the Plava out-station. It lay open to
the Austrian gunners, who did not spare it ; on the previous
evening they bad made unusually good practice, and one of
their shells landed within a stone-throw of the station, and
sent a rock into one of our tents. The station contained a
wooden shed and a few tents with three or four ambulance cars,
was under the charge of two of our officers, and they were at
the service of the Italians when demanded. It was a dangerous
little settlement. Shrapnel was cracking and pufBng over
it while we were there, and though our men worked and messed
in the shed and tents by day, they retreated at night into a
cave in the limestone cliff which impended over the northern
side. After inspecting the station we set off to cross the river.
Across the Plava Bridge, a mile or two down stream, was the
farthest outpost of the Italians, at a place called Zagomila or
Dolganiva, under the shadow of the rocky Vodice and Monte
Kuk, on the road above the stream. So vertically did the
mountains rise there that there was room alongside the road
only for a line of sheds, each about three feet in depth, to serve
as stores and shelters for the Italian troops. The place was
densely crowded with men, animals, and cars, so as to impede
our passing. But the engineers had made the road good, and
it presented otherwise no difficulties. At the end of the pass-
able road we found the dressing station, and were welcomed
by Captain Germina, with whom I spent some time. His
station was simply a ' lean to ' of wood and blanches, five
feet deep, placed against the side of the rock, which was
slightly hollowed out for the purpose. But it was in excellent
working order, with an operation table and all manner of
splints and dressings, and fit for doing first-class work.
From Captain Germina I obtained samples of the Italian
field dressings. He told me his men were careful to preserve
their dressings in the small pocket of their tunics, and did not
destroy them or convert the pocket into receptacles for
ITALY
307
tobacco and matche. a. our loklien. do. or used to do. He
had known them skUfuUy employ them on one another when
they were wounded.
„r^* "T '".''"'y exchangitg information that we neither
saw nor heard even the shells that were dropping into the
river not many yards distent and raising display" of water
columns, and were told of them only when we rame ouTand
had completed our visit by photographing the station.
„.i;l^?* ^ u • ^"'^'"8 station at Zagomila there was an
aenal (telepheric) railway. Two strands of wire rope led down
from Ae hejghts of the Vodice to the bottom of The vaSI^
and along these high air Imes aU sorte of materials were sent
up to those above, and the wounded cases which could not
otherwise be brough- down were sent into the vaUey. The
«^nMn r K» "'"• *" P'"~5 *^ "**«? ^°' ^'^en stretchers,
except m slighter injuries, and any other means of transport
offered great difficulties, but the telepheric was not foundto
i>e a success, and was used for patients as little as possible
smce men under the shock of having been wounded had not
the nerve for Wring the voyage of a mile or so suspended
many hundred feet high up in the air. 'penoea
When returning from the dressing station I also visited
what was surely the strangest field hospital in the world
about a mile to the south of Plava. There the cliffs of friable
hmestone on the roadside had b«!n driUed by an electric (?)
dnU, or scooped out, until a cave six or seven feet broad and
forty or fifty in length was formed, so as to run parallel to
the roadway ; it was lined with bunks like those in a steamer's
cabms, in tiers about ten feet high along one side ; it was
lit by acetylene, and in cold weather warmed by hot-water
pipes. One chamber served for an operation theatre, and the
drill was at work preparing a larger and better one. It was
quite dry and comforta le. I believe that later on, when the
Austnans had been driven so far back that they were un-
able to shell the Isonzo valley, the railway tunnels were lit
heated, and converted mto field hospitals, but these I did not
LXVI
The Carso
The Carao was the scene of some of the severest flffhtinj?
dunng the summer months of 1017. We in Friuli were
witnesses to the fierce determination of the Italians to hew
their way across it and liberate Trieste, and how their in.sistent
eflorts were opposed by the equally strong resolution of the
308 REMINISCENCES OF THREE CAMPAIGNS
Austrianf to withstand them. Day by day tht fcporti came
back to ui of the enormous difflculties which were being
met with, of the tremendous defences piled up in that hopeless
region, and how the persistence of our allies was overcoming
them inch by inch and hour by hour. A great deal of our
attentbn was directed towards the conditions of the Carsic
tableland, and we were naturally desirous of seeing for
ourselves the territory which was being won by such a pro-
fusion of bloodshed, and why the armies which could capture
the heights of Monte Kuk and the Vodice were able to make
only such slow advances on that fur less elevated plateau.
I therefore considered myself very fortunate in being able
to make more than one visit to these battle-fields.
My first expedition was to the northern half, where our
recently arrived British artillery was fighting side by side
with their Italian comrades.
Where the Julian Alps sink down and cease to be mountains,
on the south-east of Goritzia, their termination is marked
by a deep valley in which the Frigido (Vipacco) River comes
irom the east to flow into the Isonzo ; and on the south of
that valley, where the northern half of the Carso begins, a
barrier of hills runs across the plain and is pierced by a long
glen called the Vallone, containing the only road into the
southern half of the Carso. To penc'rate this range of hills
the Italians had 1 <'ain possession of the Vallone, and this
entailed a prolon^<.J series of ^nguinary actions, conductea
with great bravery and eventually attended with success.
One day when work permitted 1 went over in the forenoon
to see the northern part of the plateau. We started after
breakfast at eight o'clock, and went down to the lower
Isonzo by Cormons and Mariano to Gradisca, to meet one
of the British artillery ofiBcers who was to accompany us,
but, finding he had already left for his guns, we followed,
crossing the Isonzo by a wooden bridge near Farra, and
gained the left bank. On the hither side of the bridge almost
every yard was filled with the military, their tents, stores,
horses, and corveyances ; it was a never-ending camp, and
notwithstanding the attempts which were being made at
concealment by branches of trees and other devices, it could
only have been at night that hostile aviotors could have
failed to discover what was going on. But once the Isonzo
was crossed, we were seemingly in another set of conditions.
There were, it is true, soldiers passing along the roads now and
again, and the carabinieri were watching at every five
hundred yards, while at each fork or crossing there were
pickets of men, and steel helmets were the only headdresses.
ITALY
3P9
Yet otherwi,e the country, to miperflcial observiition, wu .
hill tracks and lanes, the lilent abandoned ruins of houKs.
chnteBux, and buildings were still and motionless ; and it
required a penetrating inspection to discover that every
shelter, every thicket, w.is crowded with implemenU of wa7
nmre » than on the other bank, only he^e they were so
artfully concealed that nothing would have been detected
obsenTeilT '"'*'""« 'y™ ^^ cameras of the aeroplane
V.tiln' P'"*"* 'h^"8h Rubbia. at the norther end of the
Vallone. where the broken bridge of the Trieste railway hun.
«^f.r^?' k" "fu • r,P«""*d the Frigido and followed it.
course to where the Italians cea!>ed to hoU the mastery and
the Austnans came in It was all a land of medium-sixed
hills two to five hundred feet high, with narrow valleys
»k T": "'""JS which the tracks, well watered to neutralise
the dust which might have betrayed movements, twisted
un^^/T'^;,J^^ ^r '° "" "" occasional British
uniform and slouched Boer hat. mingled with the blue-grey
Italian coats, and tiom them we obtained our direction.
on f^m the fairly good main road there presently branched
a wheelbarrow track, running in the bottom of a naii«w ravine
If!!"^!'"* f ^1"°"^ •"'"' ^y » 8««t ploughshare, almost
straight up to the top of a three hundred feet high bare hill,
and a third of the way along the furrow was the British
(Sapnisca) howitzer battery. 900 yards from the Austrian
defences There were no nicely constructed walls, parapets,
and embrasures The eye only saw some small irreiula;
deepish quarry-holes cut in the eastern bank of the nwrow
revinp .hapeless as those from which road ballast is extracted
■•-en of the holes lay a British howitzer, so artfuUy
arronged that just sufficient of its muzzle protruded to enable
It to be freely worked, and all the shining metal pc ts were
either covered with natural-looking greenery or dark canvas
hiln^°l, '".rt^",""* ^l f""= """position. The gunners,
helped by the Italians, had managed to pick out for them-
selves, in the limestone rock which walled the ravine, a small
kitchen, sleepmg closets, and a chart-room, while a heap
ol sand bags, looking like a wagon-load of grain sacks, covered
a small dug-out and, I think, a small magazine.
The country about the Vallone reminded one of the West-
inorland hills, and seemed as peaceful. Though we were
close to them, there were no enemies to be seen ; it appeared
a difficult country to be fighting in. and one of the difflSes
was that there was nothing visible to fight with. The only
310 REMINISCENCES OF THREE CAMPAIGNS
object that we law from the bkttcry t'j»t wm not the work
of nature wai a church ipire half a mil : or more away. That
wai the only mark for the gum.
But it wai not used as a Urget. In the small chart-room
which had been formed close to the battery stood a table on
which was sprenL a Inrge-scale map ; a pin stuck in it repre-
sented the exact position of the guns ; on the pin was pivoted
a strip of transparent celluloid giving the direction in angles
(the Italians graduate the circle in 1000° in place of the British
8«0°) on a ten-inch circle on the map, by which the gun is
laid ; the strip was ruled with the distances ; while a separate
table indicated the allowances to be made for variations in
temperature, barometric pressure of the nir, and direction
and force of the wind. The gunnery was all done from the
map and the church spire. When it was wished to hit any
mark, as it was invisible from the battery, which was so deeply
sunk that the gun had to be elevated for 18° to clear the ground
in front of it, the angle of the mark from the spire was worked
out on the map, the distance ascertained from the celluloid,
and the sights of the gun laid on the spire, while the barrel was
shifted to the required angle, and therefore pointed to the
true mark when the shot was fired. The gunner never saw
his mark, but an observer on the hill behind telephoned
down to him the result of his aim and the desired correction.
It was by this sort of work that the howitzers pulverised the
enemy's trenches and defences, and when this had been
done the infantry charged on them and completed the
business.
We returned from the northern Carso by Sagrado, a charm-
ing town where the Isonzo, more beautiful than ever, had
entirely shaken off its connection with the hills, and wound
and forked and reunited its blue streams and arms among
beds of snowy stones and white islets, on its last journey to
the Adriatic Sea.
On another occasion I went to visit the southern Carso,
to see its condition and, among other things. And out what
the ' doline ' were. We had been intrigued as to what these
mysterious hiding places in the Carso were.
That the doline were hollows in the plateau, some of them
having caves below them, every one was aware, but how they
came to be there and to be such a feature of the southern
Carso, was a matter on which no one could throw any light.
I welcomed the opportunity of adding to my information,
by seeing the nature of the diffl'^ilties in campaigning on so
famous a region and solving the puzzle of the doline.
After having seen my patients, who were then reduced
ITALY
311
to four or fire, dretMd and doing weU, we ict off in the morning
on a line windleu day, though very hot even at that early
hour. On the way through San Urenio, aeroM a new bridge
which wai being oonitructed over the lioi zo below itn
junction with the Frigido, all the villagei we passed through
were lunply knocked into pieces, and mere shattered frag-
menti of rooflew walls remained. We followed the rond
along the Vallone to near its end, and then turned somewhat
westwards so at to cross the lower Carso tableland until we
«me to the heaps of stone marking where the villase of
Dobeido had stood.
This part of the Carso has some resemblance to the island
I J I'A*" P"*"?* '* ">'«'"* "''"er be likened to the table-
land of Dartmoor. It was a series of low undulations not to
be thought of as hills, with faint broad depressions between
them, forming a dry plain, with never a stream even of the
tiniest, where grey stones and ridges of rock bestrewed it,
covered with an inch or two of mould or quite bare, which
could give pasture only to goats and sheep, though these
would have thriven well enough upon it. In this respect its
surface reminded me of the Aran IsUnds ofl the coast of
Galway. The whole southern Carso was a bed of limestone,
stratified nearly horiaintally, but with a slight dip from north
to south, made up of water-rounded stones without ice
strw, cemented by a matrix of lime whose crystalline struc-
ture was arranged in agate-like layers between the strata us
the lune had been deposited fiom solution. On the surface
crevices grew numbers of pretty little flowers, but in contrast
to their beauty one was impressed with the knowledge that
It was dreadful ground to fight upon, for even the smallest
projectiles when striking must have shattered off numberless
fragments to form secondary projectiles, adding much to
theu' devastating effects, especially in the case of exploding
sh. :b t'enches in such a region were difficult to make;
they had to be drilled or blasted, involving great expenditure
of time and labour. Hence as the Italians advanced they
had mostly formed loop-holed walls of stone or, where practic-
able, made use of sand bags, to protect themselves and main-
tain the territory they had gained, firom the enemy's showers
of missiles emanating from the elaborately excavated trenches,
covered ways, and fortified doline which they had had abundant
time to construct.
That the victory had been hardly won was evidenced by
the countless graves, where friend and foe were alike buried,
though in separate compartments, with distinct sorts of head-
crosses ; all these cemeteries were neatly kept, and were met
ti
1 ■' ' f'h
■J
1
312 REMINISCENCES OF THREE CAMPAIGNS
with in every ^.pace where graves could be dug in the ground,
along the road leading through the Vallone.
Beyond Doberdo we found the headquarters of the British,
in a, dolina which had also been occupied by the Austrians.
From that point we had a good view of the Italian lines at
Jamiano, on the famous hill No. 208, where so much blood
had been poured out, and of the Hermada Hill which stood
as the chief remaining obstacle to the advance on Trieste ;
it was still in Austrian hands, as was shown by the shelling
going on around it, and by a stray bullet which would sing past.
After having grasped fully the nature of the military
operation, I turned my attention to the doline, and made a
careful examination, along with photographs, of several of
these structures. Dolina is not a word which appears in any
of my Italian dictionaries, and its meaning and derivation
I cannot even guess at. They may be described as punch-
bowl-shaped depressions in the level of the general plain.
They were circular, varied from a quarter of an acre to an
acre in extent, or even more ; were sometimes shallow and
shaped like a saucer, in other instances larger and resembled
an inverted cone or funnel, their bottoms showing a level
meadow-like floor, at a depth of perhaps fifty to a hundred
feet, and very commonly there existed irregular caverns
or grottos underneath their depths. They were thickly
dotted over the southern Carso.
Doline formed magnificent retreats and fastnesses for the
Austrian defenders ; they possessed step-like sides and margins,
which were natural trenches and gun emplacements which
did not appear above the level of the plain ; and large bodies
of troops could be concealed invisibly to those approaching,
and well sheltered from hostile fire, especially when shell-
proof hollows were excavated under their edges, but they
were suitable for riflemen, machine guns, and cannon with
little or even no preparation. In the caverns which lay
beneath some of them, which were enlarged and shaped for
the purpose, there had been formed store-rooms, dwelling-
rooms, and other chambers, Ut sometimes by electric light
and Aimished with various conveniences and luxuries. Down
the steep sides of the doline had been formed stairways and
sloping roads which furnished convenient accesses for infantry,
horsemen, and even guns and wheeled vehicles. The signs
of their having been occupied during long periods of comfort-
able non-disturbance were plainly to be read in the elaborate
cement montmients and inscriptions with which some of the
doline were provided, giving the designations of the corps
and the dates when they had occupied them.
ITALY
3«3
finl ^"°r ^"y/"®""'* to >*ad the riddle of their forma-
«^;ifl^!i£"T '^'"8 ^-rtually a level pkin of horizontally
steatifled lunestone with no streams or water-channels, the
^1^^^**^^^ y deposits on it by tremendous thunderstorms
collects in every dip and depression and forms pools. The
water sinks mto the porous rock, and dissolves the limestone
as It filters through it mto the depths. Every fresh rainfaU
makes the pool somewhat larger and deeped and wTn i
Has sunk mto the ground leaves a greater hoUow, capable of
conteming more, so that the solvent action beneath is acceler'
ated, and a ftinnel results, mto the apex of which rush torrents
subterranean channels and caverns in the soluble rock. The
doline take theu- origin, as may be seen in many places,
^sha low depressions where herbage and bushes gii,w more
tteely than elsewhere, usuaUy circular and shaped like a dew
pond, a few feet deeper in the centi« than at the edoes. As
nfrtfT *''?,d«P/es?ion deepens into bowls and funnels,
on the steep sides of which are the step-like edges of the strata
™r'Si°"j'''T T^"^ *' «'*»^* "*«"'' °f having been
gradually dissolved by water action. The grottos l^neath
n»if f t^T '*°^L- P*"* "^"^ numerous doline about the
part of the Carao which we visited, and all of them confirmed
^m^l7 *''"1 ongm-indeed no other supposition
^n^J 5 '"°'"*"* ?°'''"^- "^^ P""^^ demaiXagesi
IthT^ ^T^ "K'^^t ^"^^ ^'^ "« «<l"i«^ t° produce
!«mi^ff "^f^: F"''*'™^*'' °'"' "f t»>^ "JoKne which I
exammed we found the grotto, into which it was necessary
to descend by windmg passages, on planks and steps roughly
^mf. •" T''' ^ " ^'^^ °' ^^^y °' *°'*y fcetf when we
came to a chamber of about ten yards across and eight feet
m height, with damp, rough, irregular, water-worn walls
contammg quite a pure air a good many degrees lower in
traiperature than on the surface. Several of the doline had
been converted by the AustrL:ns into vegetable gardens, pot
herbs havmg been cultivated in their level bottoms
■ i
LXVII
A Field Hospital in the Carnic Alps
The Camic Alps bound the northern side of the Friuli plains
framimg a bamer between Italy and Austria, and I made an
ei^Jdition to see how matters were conducted there
1 cLf^A*^"?." "^ ^^ ^^ <»**'ed ™°"n<l rising out of the
labyrmth of dmgy streets that form the quaint old town of
(
314 REMINISCENr^ S OF THREE CAMPAIGNS
Udine, his eye may range to the north for eight or ten miles
over the plains as flat and unrelieved as a billiard table.
Beyond them, without warning or intermediary, rise the Alps,
forming a wall of precipices emerging fenceiike out of ti»e
ground. From a few rifts in the wall rivers rush out on the
plains, emerging so suddenly that one mile they are swirling
in deep wild savage gorges, and in the next mile meandering
quietly through a stagnant plain. Our route into the Camic
Alps lay up one of these rivers, the Tagliamento (or Cutting),
whose name exactly describes its character among the hills
before it has been converted to placidity in the plains below.
The place of its escape is at the town of Gemona, a curious
old city jammed between a spire of rock on the west and a
hump on the east which remind one of the eye teeth of a
dog. Gemona has of course, in common with so many
Italian towns, a bastioned hillock in its centre crowned with
a fortress and tower, the usual high square featureless tower
with windows near the top, the only possible purpose of which
could have been outlook over the country.
There was a church in Gemona which was like most of the
Friulian churches in being a mixture of the beautiful and
the ludicrous : the intricate rose windows with interplated
muUions, the most exquisite and delicate imaginable ; the
comic stone figure, twenty feet high, of Saint Christopher
hokling in his left hand the infant Jesus and in his right a
stone olive tree, built into the wall on the west of the door-
way ; the ugly quaint sculptures of the Magi, and the hideous
images of the Trinity carved in stone above the doorways.
The church is said to date from the thirteenth century, and
surely it must have been some outer barbarian who made the
sculptures, while some Italian inspired poet made the rose
windows.
Above Gemona we ascended the glen down which boiled
the Tagliamento, where there was room for our road, a small
railway, and a few little farms and vineyards. The rocks
which lined it rose sheer from the margins of the fields ; the
cleft in the mountains deepened as we went along, and the
bounding clifis grew more precipitous and became tipped
with snow, until, five miles farther up, the river, as it came
in from the west by a sudden right-angled turn, occupied
the whole bottom of the valley with its bed, a huge stony
expanse, the moraine of a retreating glacier of former
days.
Before we turned to strike up the river bend we passed
a tovely little group of villas and cottages, evidently forming
a favourite summer resort, called I think Vensone, clean
ITALY
315
and tidy, in contrast with some other old dark nanow-
streeted and verminous-looking villages which lay near at
hand. But the war had scared the visitors away, all the
houses stood empty and solitary, and the little railway had
ceased to run. Following now the road, which led for eight
miles across the scree that had been brought down from the
cliffs and deposited at the edge of the stream, we came to the
mountain town of Tolmezzo, where there was one of the British
Red Cross ambulance stations under the charge of Mr. S ,
who I think had been an artist in Rome, and, like seveiai
others who were under his orders in Tolmezzo, had gratuit-
ously given his services to the sick and wounded in that wild
region. After a visit to his station we continued onwards
tiU we reached a tributary of the Talgiamento, the Degano
River, which descends from the boundary where Italy and
Austria join in the snow. The scenery became more en-
trancing than ever, to right and left were precipices, with
great triangular fans of white scree descending from them,
and at mtervals fertile little farms filling the bottoms of the
glens, with small fields of maize, vines, and abundant wabiut
trees. Up along the Degano River the track climbed past
minute hamlets and busy water-mills, until wt arrived at
our destination, Comegliano, where there was the field
hospital we had come to see. It was a small summer house
gifted by an English-Italian lady in Rome, and was under
the charge of Lieutenant Dr. Giovanni Giglio. In a region
where there was nothing but hills, probably not a quarter
of an acre of perfectly level ground anywhere, the little
hospital was perched up on a mound of its own, looking down
on a winding country road with which it communicated by
rustic stairs, and in its turn looked down upon by fhiwning
mountains on every side, in a land of trees and pines and
resinous scents, with alpine flowers waving in fresh alpine
breezes.
Internally it was a fine little hospital for its size, furnished
with all requiremente, everything within and without repose-
ful, and in short a model of what such an Alpine lazaretto
ought to be.
The patients were mostly medical, for there was not a great
deal of fighting going on in that quarter. One had indeed
only to look rovmd to see that warfare on an extensive scale
was next door to an impossibility in such a coimtry, for it
was a chaos of pointed eminences, the lowest of which were
wooded spires of rock, above which towered other spires and
bare ridges, and over them again were tie snows of the Atos,
the highest summit being Mount Crostis, over 7000 feet in
i i
3i6 REMINISCENCES OF THREE CAMPAIGNS
height, a saw-edge of white excepting the darker tracks of
the ice roads by which men and munitions were sent up
to the fortifications of Crostis and the giants about him.
On heights like these it was no easy matter to attend to
wounded men ; usually enough, no transport in the ordinary
acceptation of the term was possible ; the wounded had to be
carried down declivities in any rude fashion that was possible,
being slid if need were, or lowered by ropes down precipices,
and carried by hand to the bottoms of the valleys, where
ordinary transport was obtainable.
Here and there the Austrian lines were visible behind the
Italian ones, but the fighting was for the time a stalemate,
since neither side could do more than hold its own sets of
defences.
When we had seen all that we wished at Comegliano, we
turned away to the east among the lower Alps, over the
eastern rim of the Degano valley, up and down extraordinary
winding ways among alpine recesses with their little churches,
until we were on the watershed, when we found a place
where there was something distantly resembling a level,
and stopped for luncheon, propping the car's wheels with
stoi' :«, near a swampy hollow filled with the most exquisite
flo\v^rs in rich profusion. The ground was a carpet of butter-
cup:,, cotton grass, campion, lychnis, globe flowers, sweet-
williams, columbines, pinks, violet-coloured campanulas,
orchis, purple stacbys, and geraniums. Presently we went
on over a series of spurs, and dropped down, by ways so steep
that the brakes became over-heated and had to be cooled
by douches of water before we could venture to proceed,
ir to the valley of the But River, crossed it at the Suttrio
Bridge, and returned to Tolmezzo.
On the way back from Tolmezzo to Udine, we varied our
route by cutting off the angle of the Tagliamento, going by
the mountain lake Cavazzo, resembling the upper end of
Loch Lomond, with a strong fort on a mountain situated
like the Ben, and it may l^ worth noting that the Lake
Cavazzo fort, when the Austrians afterwards overran this
part of Italy, was the site of a memorable defence by the men
of the 86th (?) Division, who for twelve days successfully
withstood the overwhelming forces who sturounded them.
It was the one bright spot in the Italian retreat.
ITALY
LXVIII
3>7
LiPE IK ouE Unit
Amowo the forty or fifty ladies and gentlemen who fn™-u
our unit the« were many talente. M^ Sdid scfef
tllT/ ^ «>*fts and sciences, and the Villa T^nSw^
the headquarters and rendezvous of all. In less busv timt!
and on special occasions, therefore, we were nof ^ifr^
amusements and relaxations. ThLe w^al^ ~,'''?°"*
services regularly conducted on Sun^Jthoie <,f us*^h„'
act representing members and V.A D •TLl^^l'l, ■ ■
admission to the unit by bribed "; fte Ih^n^ „f^"""«
»^; the second taking^ffthej^LnaritLoXUmS
ofRcials, sparmg not even the Commandant: theS w«
a really pathetic act wherein, sirty suppo J yj^UiteT
the war was finished and only four grev-hea^ H^^-Jt '
put them to bed and managed them like infentT TheS
was entirely written, composed, and st^ed by ind^^^k
of the unit, and was remarkably clever maiviauals
New Year's evening was celebrated by a dress ball in th.
t^™^ '"?"'''' ^^^'^^^"Tri^ngly wondLfuT^ tS^L „lre
turned out, cowboys. Chinamen, Indians a ladv 3 ™^1
man in Highland costume, and iu.ny othei, hJ'^Wcl. one of
our most esteemed ladies, in simnle pv*nm„ .J^ f
by h^^c^ftilness MiWs". '^S^' tnTh^ fcf cS^
for those confined to Wa"d a'^iCpTo^sle ^fTh"^'
having constructed a very' attractive^ry', ^^nveS
a gmaU room into a representation of the N;ti4ntH
khem, where the three Magi were offering their gaftTthe
Virgin and mfant Saviour in the stable, wgile on Sis a^^d
3i8 REMINISCENCES OF THREE CAMPAIGNS
the shepherds were guarding their flocks and gazing on the
Star in the East, ft was astonishing how t^y succeeded
in finding the materials for all the dressed figures, hilb, grass,
trees, sheep, and other accessories.
Lastly, when weather permitted, there were some garden
parties given by the lady housekeepers in the grounds of the
Villa, where, when they were not riined by rain, we for-
gathered with Italian friends and members of other British
services, and cultivated good-fellowship. They were most
beneficial from an international point of view.
To tell the truth, we had need of these alleviations. I am
not an admirer of the climate of northern Italy, or indeed
of any part, from Sicily to the Alps. Friuli at any rate is
incomparably worse in point of climate than Britain, and has
far more dbcomforts. It is emblematic of the district that
most of the peasants constantly carry huge black umbrellas
such as at home one sees only as coverings of market stalls.
In the early winter there were some brilliant days, but
as midwinter approached the weather became anytlung but
exhilarating ; morning after morning rose on a desolate flat
landscape loaded down by heavy grey skies, and over it swept
eternally misty veils of rain which dripped and dripped and
dripped. The mist concealed the hills and mountains,
which otherwise would have given variety to the eye and
imagination, and shut out the hope that these would have
inspired, so that one felt, despite oneself, the depressing
sensation that the dull wet was to be eternal. People moped,
tended to be rather firetful with their neighbours, had a
somewhat resentful feeling at any attempts to be cheerful,
little peculiarities of others grew annoying, and even tobacco
brought but a momentary solace. One had to keep a tight
rein to avoid thinking and saying nasty things, and preferred
to get into a lonely comer to brood over recollections of warm
rooms, with sea-coal fires, nice old friends, libraries, and home
comforts. Our only fuel was wet logs, whicn would hardly
be persuaded to bum, and in spite of the stoves we introduced
into rooms where no such provision had been contemplated,
it was miserably cold in the winter months. The world
seemed to be sinking into a lethargy ; even the guns ceased
their thunder, and one wondered irritably. Why? It was
hopeless to don waterproofs and walk ; the clay was every-
where so tenacious, even in the grass of the fields and vine-
yards, that the feet at once got clogged, and slipped, while
to climb a slight slope was a slithering process that was apt
to land one on hands and knees. Daylight came in about
eight o'clock and departed about four, and the artificial lights
ITALY
319
were preferable to the giey-buided skies whose only relief
war a russet edge of funereal colour along the horizon at
sunnse and sunset. The cold deepened as the winter solstice
amroached. snow fell, avalanches occurred in the mountains
"r^^* "*• *°° °" °"' occasion buried near Tobnezzo a barrack
of Italian soldiers, killing leo of them. Between the solstice
and the New Year there was little to be seen beyond the
creepmg mist, so dense as to produce a most unnatural silence :
tne land was still.'
Towards the middle of January, after a short interval of
dry, cold, and frosty days, it feU back again into the dark
diMnal days we had had in December— it was perpetually
wet. There is more fine weather in England durina the
wmter, and less rainfaU, than in Friuli. Even as r^ards
!»cottond, which is to some a byword for iu climate, I
should be highly surprised if the rainfaU on ite maligned
east coast exceeded the faU we experienced in Italy. Tot^s
the end of January the mists cleared off, the glorious white
range of the Alps on the north became visible, the Belds
about us became white with untrodden snow, and the bitter
north wmd, the 'Bora,' blew over them— blew also over the
hard Itozen roads and carried the dust from the traffic over
the hedges, trees, and fields on the southern sides, raakine
a broad nbbon of grey dust along all the lines of communi-
cation. The Bora dried up the sources of the rivers, the
stoeams shrank to nothing, and we drove across them instead
of going by the bridges. For weeks the snow, frost, and wind
were of the most biting kind, gales blew over the plains
sweepmg the dust from their cheerless surfaces and carryinil
It before it, driving nearly every one to shelter, and almost
arrestmg the war traffic on the roads.
As the iron frost continued, our water pipes became frozen
except where they were kept thawed by paraffin stoves
sanitary arrangements were for days partly suspended, and
baths were entirely so. Nearly every one became more or
less 111, even our strongest-looking men suffered, and thoush
on the last day of January the bitter, intensely cold gale
had faUen, and a yellow sun was struggling to cheer us with
some heat through the fog and high clouds, and the winter
was domg its feeble best to part from us with a wan smile
yet no one felt any confidence in the success of its efforts'
Some were senously ill, and the unspoken question read on
most faces was, ' Who will next go down ill ? '
Well on towards the middle of February the hiUs ard valleys
lay bare and brown, as if burnt ; the brooks were frozen over
and sohd, there was no sign of spring, but a piercing half
3ao REMINISCENCES OF THREE CAMPAIGNS
gale blew down from the mounUini and chilled out hand*,
eart, and bones, and almost blistered our &oes as we moved
about.
The second week in March was reached before we got the
nice spring mornings, with their long blinks of sunshine, as
the sun peeped at us from behind small floating cumulus
clouds and wandered into big spaces in the blue sky. The
tiniest of brown buds, with a &int dot of green at their points,
began to show on the vines, hawthorns, hazels, and roses,
though all the other trees and shrubs were lazy and could
not be said to move. Purple and white crocuses were now
evenly scattered over the ground, like the stars of the Milky
Way as seen through a telescope ; they were in ali ihe coppices
with stray ones .n the waste grounds, and shy groups of
creamy primroses snuggled away in half-hidden nooks and
hollows, and were so charming that it was hard to tear oneself
away from them. As the days advanced the air became
warm, the south-west wind had no bitterness, and those of
our nurses who were off duty hastened out to gather the
flowers into baskets and boxes, and lie in sun-baths > -^ the
greening fields below the rows of vine stems.
These joys did not last. April saw a return of the cold,
so that we might have imagmed ourselves back again in
January, for there was generally a wet fog, with billows of
mist and cloud rolling up overhead from t*e Adriatic, borne
by the south-west wind j it constantly rained, sometimes
a thunderstorm came over with heavy showers, and the days
varied between gales, hail, wet, i>ad now and then a transient
half-hour of feeble sunshine. As late as the 32nd of April
it snowed now and then.
Punctually on the first of May the E^rth Spirit awoke, and
everything burst into leaf and even flower. The most pofect
weather was in the middle of May, when it suddenly became
warm, with an occasional cloud coming down from the north-
west and bringing a slight shower to lay the dust and temper
the glare. The vineyards were then in full leaf, with tiny
fish-roe-like clusters of grapes commencing to be visible,
and fresh varieties of blossoms appearing every day ; vetches
predominated, and elegant spirseas shook their snowy balls
among the grass and herbs. Alas that one should have to
tell it: scorpions began to make themselves impleasant,
tarantulas swept like shadows across the walls of our roonu,
and the shrill mosquito's pipe began to sound.
June brought thunderstorms, ijod these became very violent
in July, with a moist heat that was enervating. The rain
was often cataractous, flooding the country, submerging the
ITALY
321
low-lying roads, and even holding up traffic The h«t r
for instance, ^i^^^VngT^^'C^'^'ty^: °"^^'
exe^djt. and we th^w'operouKS.'^ti'^r tr,
the^wLlTch~Ss"/;LVrhe'°„^X^^^^^^
Hjlrunlr^^derKt*'^? SsK'i ^ -«
better situation should be brouaht E »nH T *^ "
granted respite from work »^^ w-f^ had frequently to be
Solidays in^R^mrCapri Mita^ Zm ^J" ^^^^ '^"^
most salutary and satiffakf^ mWsu^e mV1^«1- "
complete restoration to health Xvirth^L'^ resultmg m
we« invalided home to Engft a^rSi::n«?ie?t 'Z
Jl^^itlfbett^ta^tlheX" tLtLX-^''^'".
the cars escaped without bemg st4fc by shel^o^^hr' "!
and some of the men themselves were st^ck L^yif'''"^''
'u^'wor/s*^^ tt;^t 'T'^ ^^^- ^- -=
thigh, aS L.'^er%'1a^:riy"es'i^^^^^
333
REMINISCENCES OF THREE CAMPAIGNS
LXIX
Thx Coixafsk or thk Hospital
I BAD some hesiUtion as to whether 1 should try to tell whjt
1 know about the collapse of the hospital department of the
unit, since much of it was learned only from hearsay, gathered
in franment« at different times, and must therefore be given
in a rath confused order. But as some day it may have
a hUtorical value, I have resolved to set down, m conclusion,
what I saw and ascertained regarding it. ...
After I had completed more than a year of service, missmg
only three days trom illness or any other cau^, I obtamed
six weeks' leave from the unit on purpose to reoxuit my strength
before returning to implement my promise u> serve untU the
«)nclusion of the war. I left it on the 17th of September
1917, and returned to Scotland. My leave had almost ex-
pired when I heard that the Austrians had made their sudden
victorious sweep through Friuli, recapturing Gontzia, dnvmg
the Italian armies before them, pushing forward through
Udine, and were still advancing westwards in the direction
of Venetia. Business prevented my immediate return to
Italy, and it was the evening of the 2nd November before 1
was free to leave Aberdeen to rejoin.
After having hurried through to France with the utmost
oossible speed by Southampton and Havre, I was waitmg in
the lounge of the St. James's Hotel in Pans, when there
poured into it a crowd of refugees from the unit, along w'h
another straggler whom they had picked up on the \ >.
They were headed and shepherded by Mr. D -.one oi or
Irish members who had obtained leave from a Goveri-.ent
post in Dublin to act as an ambulance dnver m our Gont^
detachment, and were now on their way home to England.
They had no baggage, not even handbags or retjculesj they
stood there just in the clothes they wore, save that one of
the ladies carried in a basket her favourite fatten which she
had brought away. Among Inem was Mr. S——. whose
thigh had been amputated two months before, and who had
been promoted from ?d to crutches since last we had met ;
he h^ had the misfortune to lose the two Italian medals
' For Vatour ' which had been conferred upon hun— they
had been in his baggage and had to be abandoned.
Miss W described their experiences to me. On the
advance of the Austrians at Caporetto, a couple of days
before the unit flnaUy left the Villa Trento. oidors had bera
received to prepare for evacuating the place. They killed
ITALY
333
^^t^ JI^^^J'^'^ *•'?' ^ •*•» ««^ fo' their
wtoto food, but failed to otch and saeriflce thS peaoodc
B«rt i«uly uid pMked m the corridor., and every patient W.
oe«» done than fiesh initructions came to admit other
to^d on the following day sent on, as none were very «v«»
STfi ^1 ^ .P"?''''y "^"y thou«nd .ick and wounded
h^to be left in the hospkal. in Udine when the Austriaw
2r^„!J T !r? ''^"* ^*»'"'" s'lrgeons having renmined
wwS. I „t'''!:i patients „ Udine, but later informati^
to ^ve b^S^ '^•' w" '* '~'* «<««Jin8'y unlikely
TO nave been true. Miss W cent nued :— As no further
£'vo"^V°i'?' 7l!\'^' Commandant at last wenTto
wS^TS; H^ffl^H "*' ''""^"frten, found the heads absent,
l^e th^ difficulty procured from a subordinate an orfer to
a^V K\^^- ""u "t* "^' ° "'"^ m the morning they left
the hospital stores behind and carried o« in cars sud, bJtnm
M was available along with the inmates. Thirty orTrt^
^^trf""^'l':r'"^ *° ^"^' *^ Udine. but on thta
WW t.ie roads with refugees and country people in iriin and
^t'^'^ ^t^'^ '^' ^'y soils'^ V^^tte
MtUtery and troops fhim getting through. The retreatine
tafcnt^r consequently threw away thei? rifles and wSuv«
m^ed them, and rushed on in complete disorder. The
Sf!l'V?t!l^";u'""'":.*'~'P'' Pe»»ntry, women, and children
ttus dhoked the road and there were no officers to regulate
tte soMiers, nor carabmieri to direct the traffic, or oi^r the
peopleto move aside and let the quick cars and ^t guns get
h^r.^ \*^u ^r"^" ?•"= "''"*»^ »cramblrfintoet^
t^ZZ A *° ^^^ ""I' ''^^ *•»«« "8«m « they thought rt
d?e^L^ "dT'tage, and the confusion pew alway mo«
«~~ ;i. ■" f"' 2?='" "««' " «»8er to obtain ' a lift '
to ^^ir^^^i- ^"I^^ matters worse, it commenced
I^i^f t^''^'"''^ '•"= "^* '»^*' "'<' m the crowding
th^Hi? I. ^A"** •'""^ =*™'°"^ ''«"t over the s.des into
theditches, and the stoies and baggage in them were lost.
the^n„-'H.^Sr'* '.'''P°^iH^ to get the unit's cars forwud,
ttey ana the belongings of the members had also to be aban'
n^w 1!. ^ ?^y °' """" from the Villa could save
r?^'^^°'"' *''* '^^^ they were wearing ; Miss W— -
hjd about ftlOin her baggage, ihich of couisl ;he^v« saw
agam, and most of the others were in a like plight. Even on
394 REMINISCENCES OF THREE CAMPAIGNS
foot the progms wm nlow ; they had only their thin •!»«» with
which to walk in the mud. and they were drenched to the
ikin ijefore they reached any sort of shelter.
They made for Conegliano (t), a small town m firont of them,
to which the Direttore of the hospital had gone forward the
day before with a few articles of furniture to secure quaitert.
This had been before the greatness of the rout had been taWy
realised, and though he atUmpted to return to help the othm
he found this was impossible flrom the blocking of the roads.
The fiigitives went on, sometimes in a car, but for the most
part on foot, until they came to the bridge o--r the Taglia-
imnto River, which it took them just four hoa.oi to cross, and
it was still a good many miles short of Pordenone, where it
had been agreed that they shouVi ftiid a rendeivous. »Vn«n
they had eventually succeeded ii. g';tting across, by the help
of Cotonel H of the British ArtiUer)-, they finally aban-
doned the last of their cars, and walked on for eight or ten
miles, soaked and covered with mud. No shelter oouW be
found at Pon? lone (T Conegliano) until Colonel H went
to the authorities and insisted on their havmg a biUet, which
eribled Visa to secure them an empty fireless room where
twtH' i' the ladies slept all night, wet and cold, on the floor.
Ti.e men drivers, who stuck as far as possible to their cars,
and either slept in them or took refuge in some other <»r»
when they lost their own or had them disabled, found no other
refuge They had no food, but got a few biscuits from the
Italian soldiers, and were thankful for them. They had
many adventures. Cars got overturned and had to be left,
and, after their contents had been looted by the passera+y,
they fell into the hands of the Auslrians or were otherwise
lost. A few of the cars were saved, added my informantf,
but nany were seen no more. .
The women refugees of the unit at Conegliano were picked
up, and proceeded by car or railway to Mantua. The tram
services were disorganised, and progress was sometimes made
at the rate of a kilometre in the hour.
Before the Paris group left Mantua, all the members had
been accounted for and were in safety. They themselves
had been dismissed under an engagement to wait for ten days
previous to re-engaging themselves elsewhere, in case of the
hospital being reorganised, which they all ardently hoped
would be effected. . . u
I presently received other accounts, which agreed in show-
ing the extraordinary condition of matters during theretr^t-
The railway station at Udine and the square in ftont of it
had been nearly impassable from crowds of people of all ages.
ITALY
3»5
««^mg .^1 «,rU of belongtiig., who wen in • sUte of great
Ammunition store, were being blown up round the dty, »ii
KnT "^'* ""* *•" ^"•'^"* ""'^^
tion that General H—- . m command of the BritUh ArtiUer
I^in^Mi;^"^ helpful to every one, and had succeeded n
whiu^.S" r «"■?»' .'^vmg'.leverly got them loaded on tr»i...,
r^^Ji CommiMioner, from whom much might have been
never Dcen seen.
Ai to the Villa Trento, some of my comrades gave the
following additional details. A few bids and bedLg had
been brought away, having been sent to the new uJality
r..'^ W" proposed to reassemble ; but these were few, and
nearly everything had been abandoned. This wa. not from
want of organiMtion in the hospital department, but it had
no transport of its own, and, moreover, the instructions of
the Italian authorities were that the Villa Hospital was to be
the last one to leave. During the night of their departure
many weary officers and men kept dropping in, so feotsore
that they could go no farther; they coujd not be admitted.
_"»!. /!!!i'"°7*^ *° "'* '" *''" entrance hall, and supplied
J^ Li^f -u ""J? "^T"" "^"^ "^^^ **»em eventually
to crawl farther Our detachment in Goritzia was imported
to have done well ; its cars there took out of the city the last
of the wounded who were fit to be moved, and were indeed
the last occupied cars to cross the Isonzo bridges, one of « ! .-h
had already been demolished by the Austrian ' .ir^ U
OontMa the bombardment wai the heaviest t i ' iiad t' •
experienced. Also the British military hosr >( a) V.r.a
near t>radisca had made a safe retreat with ,- • t«^r of
men and nurses.
Only one camera had been saved by the contingent f :n
I met in Pans, but they understood that the radiogra
photographer had saved his fine collection of neg..-.,es.
and another rjember had preserved the most of his.
there had been some cases of illness among the men of
the unit.
I may add one or two other curious experiences. Mr.
ti V"A ,*'* of our drivers, was able to • "- to his car
through the debacle although he had to pa;„ three days
and night, without rest or food, and eventually brought it
safejy through. Another, Mr. C , found his ioad blocked
by ten baggage wagons which had been deserted by their
326 REMINISCENCES OF THREE CAMPAIGNS
drivers; he dismounted, drove the leading one for some
400 yards till he found a suitable place, tumbled it into a
ditch there, dealt in similar manner with all the others, and
was enabled himself to proceed. A third tale of resource-
fulness was that a heavy Italian tractor for dragging the
great guns had been left obstructing the road, when one of
our men proceeded to it, studied its mechanism until he
understood it, set it in motion and succeeded in running it
ott the road into the ditch.
Having exchanged good wishes with my friends in Paris
I went on, and, when travelling down from Modane to Turin,
fell in with Colonel H of the British ArtUlery in Italy,
whom I had known on the Carso. He had been informed
that for two days before the debacle it was well known to
the Italians that there was a concentration of troops by
the enemy on the upper Isonzo. When the advance began
100,000 of the Italians, seduced by agitators among them-
selves, threw down their weapons, shouting ' The war is over,*
in the expectation that their doing so would at once put an
end to it, and were promptly taken prisoners by the enemy.
In Turin a former member of the unit, then serving under
the British Red Cross, gave me information which decided
me to go to Milan, where he believed I should find some
others of our people. Prom him I picked up a few more
details, but could hear nothing of our Commandant.
On arriving in Milan I came across some others of the
dispersed fragments, some in broken health, and received
a telegram announcing that the kernel of the imit, along
with the Commandant, was in Castelbelforte, a village not
for from Mantua.
I also learned that all the papers and registers of the
hospital had been lost, with all the case records except those
of my own patients which I had myself preserved.
To Mantua I accordingly proceeded, and was met at the
station by my friend Mr. Y , with his car, which had
escaped capture or damage, as it was undergoing repairs at
the moment of the retreat.
At Castelbelforte I obtained some further particulars of
the catastrophe to the Italian forces. The enemy's aeroplanes
had, it seemed, so complete a mastery over the Italians that
the confusion in the retreat and the terror inspired were so
great as to have broken all bonds of discipline, and of this
many instances were given me. Mr. T himself had seen,
he told me, the intoxicated Itelian soldiery breaking the shops
as he was passing through Udine. No one whom I asked
seemed to have any doubt of the truth of the reports that the
ITALY
327
and Army had behaved very badly, and that such of them as
remained had been sent back out of the fighting line. It
was even current that three of the generals had been con-
demned and shot for treason.
The remnants of the unit, now transferred to the 8rd Army,
were scattered about the village, where they were in a pretty
destitute state, especially in the matter of clothing. Some
were reduced to purchasing new shirts at the price of £l
each, and none of them had a change of clothing. Practically
everything had gone in the retreat ; even a car-load of pro-
visions, which the thoughtful Mr. P had loaded up and
brought off to supply the men on the route, had to be aban-
doned in the crush ; when he returned next day to seek for
it, he found all the provisions gone, and the car too, I think,
could not be retrieved.
I believe I am stating a fiact in saying that when I found
my comrades they did not possess a single scrap of literature,
not even an old newspaper; fortunately I had brought
with me a box of novels for them, which I had succeeded
in getting through. It was a godsend to them ; they were
starving for something to read in the long dark winter
evenings, and they flew on the box before I had even seen it
arrive, haled it off to the common room, opened and distri-
buted its contents, and next morning I received a messago
of grateful thanks, which I sent on to the friend in Aberdeen
who had contributed half the books as a gift to the unit.
Of the forty-four cars which had left on the night of
the withdrawal, only twenty-two remained, and these were
mostly in a bad state. The mechanics were busy repairing
them on the threshing-floor of a farm outside the village.
I counted thirteen ambulances among them, the rest being
touring cars or lorries, more or less wrecked. I believe
that oi.e or perhaps two more were afterwards salvaged
from the roads, towed away, and sent to be re-made.
There were five of our people sick in Castelbelforte, with
no medical attendant except Lieutenant V who spoke no
Einglish, and who indeed was soon sent off on some duty.
There were no medical or surgical requisites in the place,
no commode, no bed-pan for the sick, no enenu, no chloro-
form, no hypodermic syringe, no scalpel or bistoury, not
even a dressing forceps, and no one could inform me about
what hospitals there were in or near Mantua to which any
serious case might be sent.
I went to Mantua to procure a few disinfectents and bed
requisites, and a few packets of invalid food for those who
required it, for in the village there was none but coarse food.
328 REMINISCENCES OF THREE CAMPAIGNS
Mantua lay beautiful on the two great lakes fbnned by tiie
expansion of the Uincio River, on whose side the city, its
spires, domes, bastions, and crenellntions, rose out of the
waters, with its ancient long Maria Theresa causeway and
drawbridge forming a picturesque approach ; a town filled
with quaint arcades and good shops, and streets crowded
with dense bodies of men in dark cloaks and hats, with many
British officers and men moving about among them. It was
then the headquarters of the armies, and all the warlike
operations of the Italian, French, and British forces, gathering
along the Fiave River from the Adriatic to the mountains
of the Trentino, were being directed from there, in prepara-
tion for another great struggle.
From Mantua to Castelbelforte was a sodden, rice-growing
plain, full of malaria and mosquitoes, alternately soaking
in rainfall or iron-bound in bitter frost; and when in the
latter condition the trees and shrubs were crusted with rime
as if made of white sugar, with at night an arctic sky glittering
with stars, and before the windless dawn a sharply drawn
zodiacal light extending from the horizon to the constella-
tion of Leo.
City and country were in disquietude. The people were
in a state of profound discouragement at the rapid and
successful invasion of the Friuli province. Yet they were
beginning to pluck up a little heart at seeing the Allied troops
pouring in to their aid, and the many military camps with
thousands of men collecting in the neighbourhood of Mantua.
They could see, however, that in the army all was not as it
should have been. A body of troops were being brought
to the town to be reorganised, and, on arriving too late at
night to be admitted, were encamped across the bridge near
the 8rd British Red Cross Unit, who sheltered as many of
them as possible ; but it was a night of intense frost, and the
remainder broke into the houses, destroying them to provide
themselves with firewood, and looting &om the inhabitants
around, while their officers seemed a£raid or unable to control
them. These and similar occurrences kept up the alarm of
the peasantry, and a stream of refugees poured out to the
west, passing through Castelbelforte with colunms of carts
bearing their poor belongings, mostly clothes, straw, bags of
rubbish, and stray bits of machinery. The host in one of the
houses where we were billeted told me that he himself, one
of the principal inhabitants, had all his possessions packed in
readiness to flee if the Austrians advanced any farther.
The Italian hospitals, too, were in many cases pieparing
for withdrawal, and it is haidly to be wondered at tliat in
ITALY
329
them atoo there ahouH have been a certain amount of dis-
oiganisation. The staff were unable to attend properly to
the uck; suppbes were deficient; pUlows and cleaiT Unen
WW! non-existent; and the patients were lying with laroe
bed-sores where tiie bones projected, unattended to in any-
tlung like pr^r fashion. Food was scanty, and the patients
when It was brouffht fought as to who should get a part of it.
In one hospital four patients went insane from the neglect
they expmenced. In some military hospitals the dirty
condition m which the patienta were kept was repubive.
Uunng the absence of nurses and attendants the most ordinary
sick-room cares were neglected. The patients had to take
their own medicmes, or to give them to each other, and to
administer to one another the subcutaneous and other injec-
tions, where theoretically it should have faUen to the nurses
^.fVl '^*^«="»"' "nd f«"inB them to the Piantoni
<male attendants).
*t^* ..^T "* '','*f'«ie shock to me to find that the report
that the hospital department of the unit was to be disbaiSed
was unquestionably true. I could hardly credit this when
so many of our own members and other British were liable
to be taken senously ill, at experience had proved and even
ther.^hoaed, and that in the known stete of the Italian hos-
pitals such a step should for a moment have been contem-
plated_ Not Imvmg been present at the time I was not taken
mto the confidence of those with whom the decision had
rested, and I could only conclude that those who were re-
qwnsible were unable to appreciate the splendid work that
had been done by the hospital, and the great benefit its
contmuance would have conferred on the armies of both
nations.
-kS* wf l*""*. ^J^"* °^y ^"^ "^n. the decision to
abolish the hospital s.'jions seemed so deplorable that I
ventured to suggest that, at least as a small movable hospital.
It should be conserved m order to accommodate the unit
members and others of British nationality who might require
!^..^- ~Mu"'^' J" "**«»^ <» »i"^- I could not with
equanimity thmk of any one of those admirable individuals
whom I knew and valued as members of the unit, ladies as
well as gentlemen, persons who at home would in ilbiess have
benefited by the best nursing and professional attendance,
being seat to one of the hospitals of the country, above all in
their then condition of disorganisation. My proposal was
to oontmue a small weU-equipped hospital with proper staff
^™n ^**'' ™^18 ■* ?« required, but my suggestion was not
given the consideration it deserved.
330 REMINISCENCES OF THREE CAMPAIGNS
An illustration of the necessity for such a hospital chanced
to occur at that very time. One of the drivers was seized
with an attack of obstruction of the bowels. On his symptoma
growing urgent, inquiry elicited that the only resource was
to motor him to a hospital in Cremona, fifty or sixty miles
away. Fortunately for the patient the symptoms subsided
tmder treatment, but for some days they caused me no little
anxiety.
Seeing that the decbion to abolish the hospital was not to
be recalled, I offered myself to the British Red Cross Com-
missioner, but my services were not accepted.
I remained at Castelbelforte until the sick whom I found
there on my arrival were otherwise provided for, and left
Bfantua tor England on the 17th November 1917.
F">PR1MIER0
mKiyS-KYK. VIKW Ul- THE IT.M
1- Tllli ITALIAN ISONZO KKONT
INDEX
AARONSKRAAL, 301.
Al>erd«en Ambaluice Auoctation, a.
Aeroplanes, 205.
African Hospitals Inquiry, ii<
Agriculture, Africwi. 166.
Ambulance, i.
Ambulance, American, 156.
insufficient, 133, 137.
■ Driven, strain on, 321.
driving, difficulties of, 29a
Ambulances, 6a.
American Hospital, 163, 164, 192.
Andreini, Major, 276.
Annerley*s Kopje, 173.
Antooist, Dr., 98.
Arab scbool, 4.
Archbishop of Cape Town, 1 10.
Armoured train, 81.
Armstrong, Lieut., 66.
Army Medical Service, 23, 44.
Arrival of convoys of wounded. 290
Arundel, 92.
Athos, Mount, 232, 258, 359.
Australian troops, 29, 38.
Austrian lines on the Alps, 316.
Basse, Signor, 276.
Baggage for march, 195.
Baggia, Captain, 279.
Bainsitia Plateau, 259, tot.
Balfour, A. J., 115.
Balkfontein, 214.
Balloon, military, 34.
Baratrion-MorgaflT, Prince, 177.
Bamett, Dr., 12, 40.
Barriti^on Kennett, Mr., la.
Bai^ni, Luigi, 294.
Bastianelli, Professor, 377.
Beaconsfield, 153.
Bearer Company review, 194.
Beattie, Dr. J. F., 3.
Belgrade, 231, 336, 359.
Belgrade Hospital 237.
htflmont, 63.
battle of, 64.
BisM^t'tf Fan.:, 15a
Bipck, Dr. Sinclair. lor
— Week, 5a
Blesbuck, 313.
Block, Johann von, 109.
Bloemfontein, 221, 334.
Boer Chivalry. 169.
Enmity. 168.
Humanity, 183.
Boers, captive, 143.
medical concJitions, iji.
Bologna, 349.
Bora, the, 319.
Boshof, 165, 166.
climate, 186.
Bothaville, 209, 215.
Bowlty, Mr., 97.
Brand fort, 330.
Brindisi, 350.
British Medical Atsociation, 49.
Red Cross Society, 113.
Brock, Dr. G. S., 362, 363 and/oj««,.
Buller, General, 49.
Buschmannshoek, 83.
But River, 316.
Cadorna, Gkseral, 376.
I Cairo, Citadel, 4.
' Camera, Dr., 376.
; Campaign, winter, 1916-17, 283,
— summer. 1917, 393.
I Cann.wade, 267, 284.
j Cantlie, Dr. James, 3.
; Cape of Good Hope, 5a
— ---Society, VV*»-
j Cape Police, \f\
; Cape T»mn, $3.
Ca^teUo, 274, 283.
t^arnjc Alps, 26^.
~ VV\d hospital in, 313.
I Cwt Ktti and abandoned, 327.
Carso, 265, 283, 287, 307. 311.
fighting, 298.
Cnittt's Kif^e, 156.
Costelbelforte. 326.
Cataicnia, transport, loa
CaliSc. collapse of iraiiiipurl, 201-4.
Cavajuo, Lake, 316.
Cemetery at Modd» River, 119.
Cerigo, 243.
Chesharn, Lord, 173.
Chios, 357.
sn
33a REMINISCENCES OF THREE CAMPAIGNS
€hriitiMi It Villm Trcnto, J17.
Church** in Kriuli, 304.
Cividalt, Mumm, 193.
Civilian doctors, 190.
CUuenumt SAnatorium, 97.
Climate of Friuli. 383. 318.
<!olctberg, 91, 91.
ColUpw of luMpiul, J».
Co'.nwndo'f Drift, 312.
r^mus (Milton's), J17.
ContunMciftlc llonpital, 376.
Convoyi of patientt, bud eonditiont,
Convcm of tick und wounded, 134.
Corinth. Isthmiu, 257-
ComeBliuo, 315.
Conespwulmti, 359.
Carritr* tkUm Stra, 394.
Cotronc, 354.
Counter- Sunriie, 169.
Counter- Sunsets, 159. 169.
Coutta, Mr. Buidett-, 113.
Coutts, Mb}ot, /ojf I w.
Cradock, 91.
Cremona, 330.
Cronjc. General. 134, 143, and/ofjiw.
Crostts, Mount, 315.
V
, IIS-
Daily Mail t no, 1 14,
Dotty Ntwst iia
Dames Institute, Bloemfontein, 333.
Danube, 336.
Dawn in Orange Free State, 188.
De Aar, ^9.
Deficiencies at Boshof, 191.
Degano River, 315.
Destitution of unit, 337.
Disbandment of Hospital, 339.
Disease among BrittHt), 319, 331.
in Friuli, 289.
Disinfection, 223.
Diiornnisation after Italian Retreat,
Djevjelyi, 233.
Doberdo, 3:3.
Dolganiva, 306.
Doline, 310, 313.
Doomspruit, 319.
Douglas, General,
Dress Ball, 317.
Drifoatein, 175, 199.
Duke, Dr., 98.
Dunant, Henri, i.
Duplenis, J. D., 9a
Dwingfonteint 90.
East London, 74.
Egyptian War, 3.
'73-
Engagements round Boshof, 177, it(i,
1S3, 183.
Englishman, treatment by Boers, 199.
Entrenchments, Austrian, 363.
Evatt, Surgeon-Major, 3.
Expandiim bullets, 63, 177*
F
Farms, South African, 3ia
Farra, 308.
Fint British Ambulance Unit for Italy,
361.
Fleming, Surgeon-Major, 37.
ForcaticrW'alkcT, General, 53.
F*ostcr, Sir Walter. 1 lO.
F'ourteen streanm, 167, 173.
Frankfort, 171.
Frigido (Vipacco) River, 308.
GALLtroLi (Italy), 351.
Gangts, S.S.. 4, 6.
Garden parties, 318.
Garibaldi, Signorina Italia, 378.
Gatacre, General, 78, 79.
Gemona. 314.
Geneva Convention, i.
Germina. Captain. 306.
Giglio, Lieutenant, 315.
Gill. Dr. David. 107.
Glen, 331.
Good Hope Society, lis.
Gontzia, 26 1, 264, %nA fassim,
Gradisca, 277.
Graham, Sir Gerald, 3.
Grant, Bey, Dr., 3.
Greek Volunteers. 343.
Green Kopjes, 172.
Gr^gio, Captain, 277.
Grenfetl, Francis, 51, 57, 69, 76. 77.
87.88.
Groote Schuur, 97, 98.
Gunnery, 310.
Haartebkkstfontbin, 197.
Hagiar Kim, 245.
HaHstorm, 148.
Hasheen, ir
Hermada Hill. 313.
Hoopstad, 207, 309.
Hospital, First Divisional Field, 117,
IJ8.
Hospitals at Kimberley, 156.
Italian, 276.
Howitzers, British, 394.
Hunter, Sir Archibald, 161. 193.
Insanity, 142.
Inspection for a march, 194*
INDEX
Invaljdi, coodilionft of, 134.
Iron Gfttn (Vardar Kivcr). jij.
ulsnd llcwpiul it Modder. 140.
Isonio River. 366, and /trim.
lUlian character, aH^.
!>remnK Sutioni, 299, 303.
■■■■'■ Modetty, 390.
Red CtoM Shrteni, 178, 381.
Italiana n^ paticmH, 2S7.
[ACOHOAI.. ia», 133,
fMoUjourdsin, 311.
fohnion, Allan, 95, 334.
^oultert, 139.
ulian Alps, 368. 383, 308.
up»t«r, 197.
UMicc, Dr. David, aiy.
Kakir hcHiset and fields, 3ib
kraal, 178, 306.
Kalkfontein, 173.
Karoo Desert. 57.
Kavallu, 359.
Kekewich, Colonel. 157, 163, 163
w?'Le?r"*'' ^'««™'' ^' 72. 174-
Khaf ( El), 9.
Khor at Tamat, 37.
KiDiberley, <i, 130.
cnnditions in, 157.
trek to, 149.
Kitchener, Lord, 108, 117.
Klagenfurt, 268.
Kleinfontein, 89.
Kterksdorp Railway, ai8.
Klipltraat, 90.
Kominitza, 333.
Koodoesbei^, las.
Knx>nstad, 316, 32a
Kuk, Monte, 373 ; capture of, 394.
Lace Dianiond Mines, 319.
L«ng, Colonel Tyrie, 51, 57, 95.
I-Angeberg, 133.
LarudoH7)e, Lord 110.
Lawson, Dr. Robert, 3.
Leeuwfontein, 165.
Leeuwkop, 163.
I^hniannsdrift, S9.
Lemnos, 343.
Levant, 256.
Lightning storms, 145, 146. '187.
Lc^n, Mr., Matjesfontein. 57, m.
Looting, absence of, 303.
Lord Mayor's Refugee Fund, 99.
M
M'Clurb, Rev. J. J., no.
Macdonald, General Hector, 131.
355
Macedonia, 336.
Macptfor. Dr. Alewindvr. 3.
MackemitandCo,, 109.
M'Neill'i /ari»Ki, jfi. 31, 30
M-RMint Kopje, 167, 17,. ,7.
M«(ter,foniein. 136. 139, and Aim*.
MoKi, the, 317.
Mafcnctic deflection. 187.
Mabcm»fontein, 197
Maica, Cape, 343.
Mahncerinx, 389.
Malta, 344,
Mantua, 334, 338.
March, order of, 195.
Marco Voipe llospit.-il. 380.
Matjctfontein, 57.
May Day in Italy, 330.
Medal Utr Valour, 333.
Medical ofRcers' criticism!), lec.
Medilemuiean. 347.
Melhuen, I^(, 61. 165. iSo. i8<, lai
Methuen's Column. 116.
MixieaM, b.)i,, jo.
Milner, Sir Alfred. 107, 339
Mincio Rirer, 338.
Mitylenc. 358.
Modder River, 56.
camp, 61.
impurities, 149.
Modderspruit. 213.
Mohammed Achmet, 3.
Molteno'i Hotel, Tarkastad. 89.
Montgomery, 84. '
Montgomery's Scouts, 84.
Morava River, 335, 336.
>foTca, 356,
Mount Nelson Hotel, 106.
Mudrot. 343.
Muller, Mr.. Cradock, 93.
N
Naauw»rt, 93.
Names of Italian soldiers, 389.
Natiomil Aid Society, 3, «, a\
Nattiaone River, 275.
Nero, Monte, 374.
Newton Common, i e 1
Niekerkskuil. 205.
Niethling, Dr., 96.
Nieuwejahn Spruit, 218.
Nisch, 334.
Norval's Pont, 336.
Noto, Major, 377.
Nuraghe, 354.
Nurses, British, 388.
Olvmpus, Mount, 341, 242
Orange River, 59, 1 16. 226.
Orient Line, 236.
334 REMINISCENCES OF THREE CAMPAIGNS
OtkvU, 171.
Otmu Digna, 30.
OiH, Moufit, ajx.
pAARnSBBRG, I39.
/W/ AMI Cmuiit^ HI, 115.
PanuuMut, Mount. 356.
Fdion, Mount, 333.
Perry Manh, Major, 68, 330.
PhaKM Iftland, 358.
Piave, 375.
Pitcher, Colonel, 60, 65, 67.
Pipemo, Captain, 380.
Pirseui, 343. 357.
Plaini of Orange Free State, 3ii, 3i3.
Plava, 303, 305, 306.
Plevna, 134.
Pdioncd bullcti, 186.
I*(»dcnonc, 334.
Port EUiabeth. 71.
Portland Hotpiul, 97.
I'ortsmouth Addieu, 43.
PrcMpio, 3i7>
PretoriuK, General, 99.
Princ«st Irttu^ ■.■., 384.
Primtts ef IVaitt, hotpiUl ihip, 99.
Priioncra, Dutch, 100.
Priioneri of Italiani, 185.
Pritpan, 172.
Podgora Kidge, 365, 370.
Pythagorai, 354.
QUAKKRS, 363.
Queen Victoria, 49.
QueenstowQ, 77, 87.
Qtutmttmm Frti Prtss, 87.
Quika, 371.
Radovitz, 336.
Rainstorma, 145, 146.
Ralph, Julian, 110, 114. 115-
Ro)ral Army Medical Corpa, 55, 193.
Red Cross, 3.
Depot, 96.
Society, 141.
Red Sea, 7.
Refugees, II3.
Refugees Committee, 99.
Refugees from Ho«(Hta) Unit, 333.
Rhodes, Cecil, 130, 131.
Reid, Sir George, 39.
Rejection of unfit, 195.
Rensburg, 93.
Retreat horn Villa Trento, 333.
Retreat, incidenU of, 324, 335, 336.
Roadmaking, Italian, 336, 369, 386.
Robben liUnd, 103.
Robartih Lord, 56, II7, liO,aiid/«ij/iW.
Rocdewal, 3 18.
Ruhljia, 309.
S
Sabotino. Mount, 374, 304.
Sagrado, 310.
S^diik, %.%,, 131-3.
St. Andrew's Ambulance AssoctatioB, a.
Salonika, 33, 340.
San Floriano, 371.
San Giovanni di Maniano, 361.
Sftnilation at Boihof, 189.
Sanitation at Newton Common, 155,
Santi (^Aranta, 356.
Santo, Monte, capture of, 363,
Santucci, General, 376.
Sapninca Howitzer Battery, 309.
Save River, 336.
Savoxna, loo.
Serbian ifoipitaU, 359.
Serbian People, 335.
Shepherd, Surgeon-Major Peter, S.
Khiel, Colonel, 101.
Sickness, 3ii, 316, 330.
Sickness, hcnies, 189.
Sickness on march, 198, 303, 3o8.
Sinigaglia, 35a
Siisison, Captain, 116.
Skodo Vacca. Hospital, 371.
Slobbetts, 164.
Smith, Mr. Wm., advocate, Abefd«eB« a.
Smyrna, 357.
SolomcH), Sir Richard, 53.
Spiders, trap-door, 314.
SsHitskop, 1^7.
Springfontein, 336.
Springtime in Italy, 39a.
Stamfordham, Lord (Sir Arthur B^gc),
49-
Sterkstrom, 77.
Stokes, Sir William, 95.
Stores, defective, 14a
Storms, 144.
Strumnitza, 33^.
Summer offensive of 1917, 393.
Suakin, 9, 40.
Sun, 4.
Sunday services, 317.
Supplies, deficiency, 135.
Supplies to advanced posts, 397.
Surrender of Boers, 303.
Suttrio Bridge, 316.
Suva Planina, 335.
Switierland, 348.
Taoliambnto Rivu, 314.
Tamai, 30, «, 35.
Tarkastad, 88.
Telepheric Railway, 307.
INDEX
Tmpnuan tt VtuM, lU.
ToliMno, 315.
Tolnjno, tfj.
Top«hei<l«r, lj6.
Towiumd, GmanJ Sii E,
ftmim.
TnliH, luiuijr, 141,
Tnuwpoct, SI.
Tiuiipon of wouiKlnl, 397,
Traiuvul. aij,
Tnumulm, 113, 114.
Tnvdyu, Mi. G«org« M.,
fmiim.
Trinu, jM.
TVtfmH, 1.1., 75, ^
Twtflfmtcin, 175.
Tyldm, Jj.
Typhoid f em, liS.
at Boihof, 190.19a.
••iMtioBt in, m.
Udini, 161, taifuslm.
Unihiiroiiiid Fierd Hoipiul, wi.
Uikub, J34.
Vaal Rivu, 173, ao9, an.
VllMU, 144.
Vallone, 163, 308.
VaiKh Rivw, jij ai« aio.
V«n Wieki Vlei, ait.
VdUone, 314.
Veimin in Onnge Fret Sute, lU.
Vet Kivei, lai, aia
Vni» Tiaito, a6l nifuim.
33S
61 u4
a6a, uid
Villthato da Munil, 17], j}*.,.
VlMiJavili, ,05. ' '
Viiaai, Dr., 101.
Vodica, IMoaiM, jol, 107.
Volamaiy Aid, 191.
Vrytnig IMacaaa, 69.
W
Waooni, and diitt. j
Wabn'at Davia, Hon. M
73-
Wagdraai, yiQ.
iy*t/mi'i...r '/oMit/e, no, 114, i|f,
Whit. Hub. mcMMoJ, 177
Wilion, Surgcon-Ganciml, 9j.
Sui^r-oQ. Major, la.
WimWed'Mi, 1^3.
Win cf Can pslgn o( I9161;. l(a.
^^ kniiii, in.
Wou-i.lfc Mi.
W\nln;i,,', .\o. I Ifuan'tnl, tjf.
Wyii.iham. M,., 1 in.
>JI. '.
5«. «9. JO,
Vbo»ianrv, I* J, 176.
VetaitKii, hi., 735, t^t)
Zaoomila, 306.
Zandfontein, ai4.
Zodiacal Light, 8, 151. i«3, 318.
Zwaartliople, 197.
Zwaaitliopteifontein, 171, 18a.
Zwaankopjei Mountaini, aa6.
PHawd la Oreal Brilaia !>, T. u«l *. CowTAiia, Piian,. 1, HU Mrtuj
u ika UiaWf b UUnnii, Pio.